![CRICK, Francis (1916-2004). Autograph letter signed ('Francis') to Ian [Trotter], Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, 18 March 1953, two pages, 4to (punch holes); [with] an offprint of W. Cochran, F.H.C. Crick and V. Vand. 'The Structure of Synthetic Polypeptides. I. The Transform of Atoms on a Helix', Acta Crystallographica, vol.5, part 5, September 1952. Stamped 'With compliments / Reprint No.80'.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/CKS/2013_CKS_01160_0065_001(crick_francis_autograph_letter_signed_to_ian_trotter_cavendish_laborat033740).jpg?w=1)
![CRICK, Francis (1916-2004). Autograph letter signed ('Francis') to Ian [Trotter], Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, 18 March 1953, two pages, 4to (punch holes); [with] an offprint of W. Cochran, F.H.C. Crick and V. Vand. 'The Structure of Synthetic Polypeptides. I. The Transform of Atoms on a Helix', Acta Crystallographica, vol.5, part 5, September 1952. Stamped 'With compliments / Reprint No.80'.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/CKS/2013_CKS_01160_0065_002(crick_francis_autograph_letter_signed_to_ian_trotter_cavendish_laborat033802).jpg?w=1)
![CRICK, Francis (1916-2004). Autograph letter signed ('Francis') to Ian [Trotter], Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, 18 March 1953, two pages, 4to (punch holes); [with] an offprint of W. Cochran, F.H.C. Crick and V. Vand. 'The Structure of Synthetic Polypeptides. I. The Transform of Atoms on a Helix', Acta Crystallographica, vol.5, part 5, September 1952. Stamped 'With compliments / Reprint No.80'.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/CKS/2013_CKS_01160_0065_000(crick_francis_autograph_letter_signed_to_ian_trotter_cavendish_laborat033719).jpg?w=1)
Details
CRICK, Francis (1916-2004). Autograph letter signed ('Francis') to Ian [Trotter], Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, 18 March 1953, two pages, 4to (punch holes); [with] an offprint of W. Cochran, F.H.C. Crick and V. Vand. 'The Structure of Synthetic Polypeptides. I. The Transform of Atoms on a Helix', Acta Crystallographica, vol.5, part 5, September 1952. Stamped 'With compliments / Reprint No.80'.
'A STRUCTURE FOR D.N.A. ... SO BEAUTIFUL THAT WE SWOON EVERY TIME WE THINK OF IT'. Writing to a crystallographer friend less than three weeks after the discovery of the double-helix (on 28 February), Crick's euphoria is clear: 'You will have no doubt surmised that not having heard from me I have been doing other things. How right that is!'; he refers to a paper to be published in Acta Crystallographica (an offprint of which is offered with the lot) and goes on 'Jim [Watson] & I have produced a structure for D.N.A. (if you remember what that is) which is so beautiful that we swoon every time we think of it'. The letter goes on with references to other areas of research, including haemaglobin and 'p.m.g.' (poly-methyl glutamate): 'I would now much prefer to write up my thesis, and do p.m.g. with you in June or July ... Why not come over for a weekend? Cambridge is delightful just now'.
The weeks that followed Crick and Watson's breakthrough on 28 February were spent in correlating their structure with existing data, in building and refining their model (which was completed on 7 March), and in excitedly sharing the news with scientific colleagues. Crick's emphasis in the present letter on how 'beautiful' he finds the structure is found also in the famous 'Secret of Life' letter to his young son, written the next day, and is echoed by Watson's observation that it was 'too pretty not to be true' (The Double Helix). The first official announcement of the discovery was made by Sir Lawrence Bragg at a Solvay meeting in Brussels on 8 April (passing unremarked in the British press), and Crick and Watson's first article in Nature appeared on 25 April. The recipient of the present letter was an infra-red and X-ray crystallographer working at Courtauld's acetate and synthetic fibres laboratory in Coventry. He and a colleague, Lawrence Brown (who is cited in a footnote in the offprint enclosed here), had collaborated with Crick on a number of scientific projects around the time of the DNA discovery.
'A STRUCTURE FOR D.N.A. ... SO BEAUTIFUL THAT WE SWOON EVERY TIME WE THINK OF IT'. Writing to a crystallographer friend less than three weeks after the discovery of the double-helix (on 28 February), Crick's euphoria is clear: 'You will have no doubt surmised that not having heard from me I have been doing other things. How right that is!'; he refers to a paper to be published in Acta Crystallographica (an offprint of which is offered with the lot) and goes on 'Jim [Watson] & I have produced a structure for D.N.A. (if you remember what that is) which is so beautiful that we swoon every time we think of it'. The letter goes on with references to other areas of research, including haemaglobin and 'p.m.g.' (poly-methyl glutamate): 'I would now much prefer to write up my thesis, and do p.m.g. with you in June or July ... Why not come over for a weekend? Cambridge is delightful just now'.
The weeks that followed Crick and Watson's breakthrough on 28 February were spent in correlating their structure with existing data, in building and refining their model (which was completed on 7 March), and in excitedly sharing the news with scientific colleagues. Crick's emphasis in the present letter on how 'beautiful' he finds the structure is found also in the famous 'Secret of Life' letter to his young son, written the next day, and is echoed by Watson's observation that it was 'too pretty not to be true' (The Double Helix). The first official announcement of the discovery was made by Sir Lawrence Bragg at a Solvay meeting in Brussels on 8 April (passing unremarked in the British press), and Crick and Watson's first article in Nature appeared on 25 April. The recipient of the present letter was an infra-red and X-ray crystallographer working at Courtauld's acetate and synthetic fibres laboratory in Coventry. He and a colleague, Lawrence Brown (who is cited in a footnote in the offprint enclosed here), had collaborated with Crick on a number of scientific projects around the time of the DNA discovery.
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