Wednesday, October 29 158

Dear George:

The letter I dictated last Friday and mailed Monday was just a formal
reply to your card; over the weekend I had my first hint of the nectar
you have been brewing for me, and just last night there was a preas
release foretelling the announcement of the Karolinska Institutet
faculty svheduled for tonorres, (If this proves to be wrong, this
letter will be the least of my embarrassments, and I will discount the
possibility for the manent.)

George, I hardly know what to say! I am full of appreciation to you
for your inevitable part in proposing the Nobel award, and for the fuss
and hatd work it must have meant for you, That our personal friendship
can have played no role whatever in a matter of thia kind does not dimi-
nish its additional warmth on the occasion, and I am sure also that we
are equally delighted to accomplish this recognition for genetics and
especially for genetics in relation to medicine,

I should say too that the significance of the award is not in the iden
tity of the donor or even of the distinguished selection committees or
of the honorarium itself, but in the character of its choices: on this
occasion more than most I would take real pride, in being associated
with Beadle and Tatum, from whom in fact I have learned so much, and
whose work was the very foundation of my own.

Nor can I easily overestimate the help that this distincgion will be
(not to me personally, since I can hardly aspire to a more satisfactory
position thah the one I am taking at Stanford) but to the development of
the “enetios department at Stanford. And indirectly, by simplifying the
chores of financing and justifying this program, it may help save more of
my own time for the laboratory. ‘

For all these benefices I am very grateful to you, but no more than
for your friendship and hospitality last summer which made our visit to
Stockholm a memorable pleasure. Against all of them, my grievances are
wary petty, perhaps petulant, But after all, you put te in a very digfi-
cxult positions I still feel as a matter of principle that a system of
persoal rewards of this kind in science is = misguided, if noble, But,
to tell the truth I would not have theught of applying such a principle
to Beadle and Tatum, as my sentiments there quickly overrule my reasoning.
The same consideration puts out of question any thought I might ever have
had of publicly voicing such a complaint on this occasion, And I must say
that the utter surprise with which I received the news makes the affair
as painless as it could ever be for myself, Well, “eorge, on balance
how can I match these considerations against the pleasure and benefit
of the wward? So probably I will not scandalize you after all, and for
the manent will keep these thoughts entre nous, It is a wonderful
occasion (apart from the press) and Esther and I lobk forward to sharing
it withyou and Eva and our other friends, So we should see you before
the end of the year, and not in the US as I had interpreted your penulti-
mate letter,

All the best!

P.8, I know you will send me reams of
information on the practical details!

Can I rent a formal suit for the oceasion
In Stoelkholin?