Bacterial Physiology Unit,
Harvard Medical School,
Boston, MA 02115.

  

NOV 5 1986

Gg
Nov. 1, 1986. Lee oF rye pots
Dr. Joshua Lederberg,
Rockefeller University,
New York, N. Y. 10021.
Dear Josh,
Sorry to be so late with the enclosed -- I'm writing fulltime at home, and

tend to postpone work that requires consulting my files.

I think it is an interesting story, and I hope I haven't gone into too much
personal detail. If you or Eugene Garfield wish to cut it I'll be glad to
cooperate.

With respect to the query in your letter of July 14: I made no record of your
visit to my lab, and and I'm afraid a secretary of mine discarded a lot of
interesting correspondence some years ago. But I recall the exciting
penicillin story better than most of my past. Your rejection from the JBC
dates it clearly. I had my paper off to JBC less than a week after your
visit, and your rejection letter came while mine was in the mail, or at least
within very few days. The identical letter to me came almost immediately
thereafter.

On another matter: I trust the publisher finally sent you "Storm over
Biology," and I'm not going to nag you for a blurb. The book is now well out
of the woodwork, since E. 0. Wilson just published a long review in Commentary
(enclosed), and Arthur Kornberg has one in press in Nature. Obviously, I'd
like to see it reviewed in the NY Times and the NY Rev. Books, which are the
most influential publications for the general literate audience; but I'm
afraid they both probably have ideological objections to some of my positions,
and feel justified in ignoring a book on those grounds. You may well also be
concerned about potential social misuse of some of my positions, but if that:

is not so, a supporting statement by you would no doubt be useful in an ad in
the NYR.

Let me know what you do with the enclosed ms. I hope to see you again next
summer, if not before.

Cordially,

Cat /

Bernard D. Davis