November 3, 1958
Dear Francias

Thank you for your cordial note of the 30th, The main fuss here seems
to be over now, thank goodness, and I can think of getting back to my owm
work, I don't have to tell you what sn astonishment it was, and I might
still find it diffieult to believe if I did not remind myself that I was
probably exaggerating the importence of the award. Nevertheless, it is
both = gratification and an anomaly to be coupled with Beadle & Tatu
tney Should have been honored manyfold over a decade ago, if such honors
are to be taken seriously at all,

I respect your admonition about beconing an administrator, though it
is not easy to know exactly what to do about it. Aside fron the substan~
tial'Administration' involved in just running any ind of laboratory, how
refractory should one be about other obligations? Probably my most serious
external distraction now is working on the NIH Genetics study section, and
perhaps I should consider dropping even that, though I would hate to at this
early stage of its growth, I have to spend quite a lot of time just now, of
coursé, in pbeparing to move to Stanfordf, what with building plans and
grant applications, but the woret of that seems to ve just over. My move to
Stanford was predicated entirely on my personal research functions, but this
ought to fit into a departmental program which relates closely to it, especially
in the ganeties of tissue cells. If this can be financed in a reasonably straight-
forward way, with the help of various applications that have already been
drawn up, I do not expect this to constitute a serious drein in the future.
My hopes for this are based (1) on the hanogeneity of interests and relatively
small size of the departmental progren, and (2) Arthur dornberg's remarkable
exemple, Art seems to be able to run quite a good sized, and much more diversi~
fied department with heavy teaching responsibilities and still spend most of
his time in the laboratory. His technique here, as well as in DNA chemistry,
is senething I hope to learn more about from him on the spot. Our department
teaching load will be negligible and I expect to be spared any measurable
responsibility for routine committeework and the like.

What I have regretted during the past two or three years has been the
vanishing time for contemplation and reading: I used to be such a voracious
student of all sorts of things outside my inmediate speelalty, and I miss the
excitenent of it. One of my optimisms for Stanford is a far more convenient
and usable library set up.

It 1s impossible to be certain how things will go, Parkinson's law not~
withstanding. But, looking at 1t samewhat cynically, if the Nobel fuss has any
long term value at all it may be to reinforce my own determination and judgnent
how best to serve,

Best to Betty,