INDIANA UNIVERSITY

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY

December 19, 1950

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin

Dear Joshua:

I was delighted to have your letter of December 13 with
the news of your decision about the reprint volume. I think
you have decided wisely and I am glad that the UW Press went
along with you in this matter.

Let me tell you the status of my book so that you can
settle in your own mind what the situation is or should be,
and your part in it. Ihave refused to make a contract with
any of the various publishers who have contacted me about this
because I don't want to be tied up until I see the manuscript
finished. Then it will be time to present it to the
publishers, for they seem to be avidly anxious for it. At
the present time my material is in outline form only, but the
outline is very extensive and detailed. The basis at present
is in the form of the outline of two courses I have given on
Genetics of Microorganisms, one in 1946 and one in 1948. I
am about to give the course again beginning in February.
Thusfar I have not covered in my two presentations any of the
material more than once, and there is still a considerable
fraction of the material to be covered--chiefly on bacteria
and viruses. I avoided giving this to any extent in the past
because Luria was here and covered that ground in his ow
course, The last time I gave the course 1 did give a section
on bacteria, but deliberately presenting it from a point of
view that I supposed would be somewhat different from Luria's
and with different emphasis, referring the students to Luria's
review and Luria's courses for the remainder of the material
and the other point of view. Now that Luria is gone, I shall,
of course, have to include the material on viruses and bacteria
in my own course.

what I propose to do, beginning in February in my third
trial at the course, is to summarize the work on viruses and
bacteria and on certain fungi and algae that I have not yet
dealt with, although I have covered a good many fungi and
Chlamydomonas in previous presentations. In this third
presentation of the course, therefore, I should be able to
complete my survey of the material and have time left over to
pr. Joshua Lederberg--2 Jecember 19, 1950

retrace some of the ground, reorganizing it and bringing it
up to date. The outline of my two previous trials at this
course covers about 100 mimeogranhed pages each. Actually,
mimeographed sheets were made only for the second time the
course was given, but I have the equivalent notes in outline
in longhand for the first course,

Meanwhile, I have been thinkirg over how this material
should be brought together and put into book form, and have
tentatively hit upon 4 mode of approach which I should be
glad to discuss with you if you care to hear about it. It is
my present plan to start writing the book during the coming
semester while I am teaching the course. How far I will get
with it, I do not know, but if I make appreciable progress,

I should hope to continue along with it until it is done. I
would anticipate that it could be completed sometime during
1951.

Now I should like to raise a question which concerns you.
You are, of course, far more intimately involved in the work
on bacteria than I am, and you probably know the virus work as
well or better than I do. I wonder whether you would like to
collaborate with me on the final volume, taking the chief
responsibility for the work on bacteria and viruses. This
inquiry is, of course, merely a feeler to see what your reactions
would be and to see whether, if you are interested, we could
agree upon a plan and mode of approach and of organization of the
whole with distribution of our various parts in it.

There are, of course, two ways one could approach the
subject of the Genetics of Microorganisms. One is to discuss the
genetics of each kind of organism in a separate section. This
indeed is the method I have used in working up the material and
in presenting it to my classes. But one could also devise
another approach which might be preferable. On this second
approach I would put into an appendix a considerable section on
the general biology and basic genetic mechanisms in each of the
kinds of organisms to be considered in the body of the text.

Then the text itself would be sub-divided by subjects rather than
by organisms, with the understanding that the necessary back-
ground, if lacking, could be obtained from the appendix. A
teacher might, for example, wish to have his students master the
appendix first, before going on to the body of the text. I

would think this a reasonable procedure.

if you and I were to collaborate on the volume I should like
to plan to proceed according to the second method. If this were
done, I would hope that you would write those sections of the
appendix dealing with the general biology and basic genetic and
cytogenetic mechanisms in the viruses and bacteria. I would be
glad to cover the fungi, algae, and Frotozoa. As to the body of
the text, I have not yet fully thought out how this might be done,
but there should, of course, be an extensive section on
Dr. Joshua Lederberg--3 December 19, 1950

biochemical genetics, one on the analysis of meiotic processes
and crossing over, one on cytoplasmic inheritance, and so on.
In these subject sections, I would think that you and I would
each write part as our materials bore on the subject under
consideration, and that we would then try to put them together
in some way agreeable to both of us. As you can see, this
requires considerable coordination of effort, and would involve
the necessity for amicable and friendly working relations in
the hope that we could agree to some extent upon the ideas and
conclusions reached. It would not, however, require that we
be in absolute agreement on everything. Let me know your
reactions to the general idea of collaboration and as to the
method of approach that would be satisfactory to you. We can
then discuss further whether or not we should try to proceed
together on such a project,

Thanks for your very kind invitation to come and talk to
your group at Wisconsin. There is no place I would rather go to
see what is afoot and get acquainted with the people, and I do
hope I will have a chance to take advantage of your invitation.
However, I am head over heels now and once I start my course on
Genetics of Microorganisms next semester, I shall spend every
minute I can get in study and writing. So I should much vrefer
not to migrate anywhere until after this ordeal is over. If
you would not change your mind in the meantime, I should much
prefer to visit Wisconsin some time next year, for I have a
semester free from teaching, that is the second semester of the
next academic year, I would be glad to consider this a promise
if it is satisfactory to you.

with very best wishes,

Cordially yours,

Lee
TMS i gg T. M. Sorneborn