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Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) Paperback – April 17, 1997
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A New York Times bestseller―the outrageous exploits of one of this century's greatest scientific minds and a legendary American original.
Richard Feynman, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, thrived on outrageous adventures. Here he recounts in his inimitable voice his experience trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek; cracking the uncrackable safes guarding the most deeply held nuclear secrets; accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums; painting a naked female toreador. In short, here is Feynman's life in all its eccentric―a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, and raging chutzpah.
Black-and-white photographs throughout- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
- Publication dateApril 17, 1997
- Dimensions5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
- ISBN-100393316041
- ISBN-13978-0393316049
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Editorial Reviews
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- New York Times Book Review
“Quintessential Feynman―funny, brilliant, bawdy . . . enormously entertaining.”
- The New Yorker
“Buzzes with energy, anecdote and life. It almost makes you want to become a physicist.”
- Science Digest
About the Author
Richard P. Feynman (1918–1988) was a professor at Cornell University and CalTech and received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965. In 1986 he served with distinction on the Rogers Commission investigating the space shuttle Challenger disaster.
Ralph Leighton lives in northern California.
Product details
- Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (April 17, 1997)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0393316041
- ISBN-13 : 978-0393316049
- Item Weight : 12 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #123,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #64 in Science Essays & Commentary (Books)
- #239 in Scientist Biographies
- #662 in Physics (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Richard P. Feynman was born in 1918 and grew up in Far Rockaway, New York. At the age of seventeen he entered MIT and in 1939 went to Princeton, then to Los Alamos, where he joined in the effort to build the atomic bomb. Following World War II he joined the physics faculty at Cornell, then went on to Caltech in 1951, where he taught until his death in 1988. He shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965, and served with distinction on the Shuttle Commission in 1986. A commemorative stamp in his name was issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 2005.
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Ralph Leighton (born 13 November 1949) is a biographer, film producer, and friend of the late physicist Richard Feynman. He recorded Feynman relating stories of his life. Leighton has released some of the recordings as The Feynman Tapes. These interviews became the basis for the books Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think?, which were later combined into the hardcover anniversary edition Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character. Leighton is an amateur drummer and founder of the group Friends of Tuva. In 1990 he wrote Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey.
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I read Surely You're Joking shortly after it came out in 1985, as did several of my coworkers. There were differing opinions. I enjoyed it. To me it reads as if Feynman believed he could get away with expressing his unfiltered thoughts publicly. Some of those thoughts were of the inside kind that most people know better than to say out loud. If Feynman thought he could get away with this, he was right! The book was a best-seller, and some of us, at least, interpreted as an extremely intelligent and entertaining man expressing the thoughts that many of his tribe are secretly afraid to share.
Here's my advice to readers of Surely You're Joking. As you read, you will encounter bits that strike you as reprehensible. When that happens, try to think hard about them from Feynman's point of view. In many, perhaps most, such cases you will decide that the passages in question are really as reprehensible as you first thought. But in others you may realize they are not. Let me give an example. In the chapter "Los Alamos from Below" he talks about how he learned that the atomic bomb was going to be tested.
'After we’d made the calculations, the next thing that happened, of course, was the test. I was actually at home on a short vacation at that time, after my wife died, and so I got a message that said, “The baby is expected on such and such a day.”'
I overheard two of my coworkers expressing their outrage at this casual, apparently callous mention of his wife's death. They clearly thought he should have expressed more pain. My thought was "A man who had felt less, might." (Bonus points if you recognize the quote!) After all, he's talking about Los Alamos with a friend 40 years after the events in question. It would not be sensible to derail the conversation with a eulogy for Arlene.
In fact, the sequel "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character contains a chapter entitled “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” about his love for and marriage with Arlene. Ralph Leighton, who compiled these recollections, describes it as follows
"The story of Arlene, from which the title of this book was taken, was painful for Feynman to recount. It was assembled over the past ten years out of pieces from six different stories. When it was finally complete, Feynman was especially fond of this story, and happy to share it with others."
So, give the guy a break, OK?
An entertaining book, but perhaps too unfiltered for many readers.
Top reviews from other countries
I ordered 2 books: for my grandson and a friend.
Reviewed in Mexico on June 21, 2022
Great read it won’t disappoint