March 29, 1946

Dr. K. E. Arveson

c/o Standard Oil Company

910 South Michigan Avenue

Chicago 80, Illinois

Dear Dr. Arveson:

I have just returned from a trip East, and I am writing to you again because I have not heard from Dr. Henry C. Spruth, whom I had expected to get in touch with me.

I do not have any recent photographs, my last one having been taken a number of years ago; but I expect to be photographed in a few days, and the prints should be ready shortly thereafter. I am also planning to send along some bibliographical and biographical material.

Perhaps you would not consider it out of place for me to mention that at the time that I received the Nichols Medal Dr. Joseph B. Mayer, who is now at the Institute for Nuclear Studies of the University of Chicago, gave a talk on my scientific works, which seemed to me to be completely satisfactory (perhaps somewhat too flattering). The talk which Dr. Mayer gave was not published, and I suppose that he could easily bring it up to date, perhaps making some changes, in case that you or Dr. Spruth were to consider him to be a good man to cover this part of the proceedings. I have known Dr. Mayer for nearly twenty-five years, and his scientific interests have been sufficiently close to mine so that he has a very good idea of what I have been doing. I have another very good friend in the Chicago area, Professor Thorfin R. Hegness. My oldest friend among scientific men is Dr. Paul H. Emmett, now at the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh. Dr. Emrnett spoke about personal matters at the time that I received the Nichols Medal.

I would like to have your advice about the title and scope of my talk. My work has been in past years largely on the subject of resonance and the structure of molecules and crystals, and in recent years on the structure of antibodies and the nature of serological reactions. I spoke before the Chicago Section on the first of these subjects about ten years or more ago, and I spoke on the second of these subjects a couple of years ago, when I presented a Julius Stieglits Memorial Lecture. It seems to me that it would hardly interest the members of the Section, except the younger ones, to have me discuss either of these subjects again. Accordingly, unless it is the policy of the Section to have the speaker on this occasion present a summary of his principal scientific work, I would prefer to select some different subject for my talk. A possible title might be "The Significance of the Color of Chemical Substances".

Under this title I would plan to discuss a number of aspects of organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and perhaps even biology. My talk would be, I think, a talk of general interest to chemists, but perhaps without much interest to a layman, because I would plan to refer to a great many individual chemical substances. In the course of the talk I would mention to some extent my own work during the past twenty-five years. I might discuss, for example, the color of carotenoids in relation to cis-trans isomerium, the color of hemoglobin and chlorophyll in relation to the physiological uses of these substances, the color of dyes in general, perhaps the color of inorganic substances in general, surely the color of inorganic substances in connection with the existence in these substances of bonds or weaker interactions between metal atoms. This is a subject in which I have been very much interested for several years, but about which I have not published anything.

I shall be very glad to have your advice or this matter. I enclose an extra copy of this letter, in case that you wish to pass it on to Dr. Spruth.

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling

LP:gw

29 March 1946

Dear Mom

For some time I've felt a couple of small protuberances on the gum of my upper jaw back by the wisdom teeth, and today I went to the dentist for a checkup. He complimented me, as many dentists have, on my fine set of teeth, and then he told me that my wisdom teeth are coming through. Some x rays were taken and although the left one seems to be satisfactory, the right one shows a tendency to shoot off at an angle toward my cheek. It will be a long time before action needs to be taken the right tooth hasn't cut the skin yet, but the dentist think it will have to come out eventually. So I have to decide whether to have them out now or to wait. It is a miserable process, but my gum is soft and healthy. Possibly it would be wise to have them extracted immediately. But I hate the thought of going through all that.

1 April 1946

Mom,

Here it is, April, and no news of release from the army. It begins to look like I'll have to stain in until May. Even if you succeeded in convincing the Red Cross that I am necessary to the family, it would take the army two weeks to a month to complete the red tape. It's a stupid business. I feel pretty dejected now.

All my love to you,

Linus

P.S. Please mail this letter to Vosbein. Thanks