20th January, 1969
Dear Sage
I enclose a copy of Leslie Orgel's paper on the Evolution of the Genetic Apparatus and one of my own on The Origin of the Genetic Code.  I think Orgel's paper should logically be read before mine, although they were published in the reversed sequence, though in the same journal.  I hope you will find them interesting.
I hope the dinner on the 30th goes off well.  In this lab we have always regarded you as the scientific father of our subject.  If it was not for your imagination in thinking about what seemed to be impossibly difficult problems, and the encouragement that you gave to Max and Dorothy and the others, people like myself would never have had the opportunity to work in molecular biology, and would have been too timid to tackle the really interesting questions.  I shall always remember the stimulus you gave us when you came to visit the Cavendish when I was still a research student and particularly appreciate your support when I was having to, at that early stage, say unkind thing about protein crystallography.  It is wonderful to see how the subject has developed since then, both on the structural side and on the biochemical side, but without the early work of people like yourself it would never have got off the ground.
With all good wishes,
F.H.C. Crick