Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie (Great Discoveries) - Hardcover

Goldsmith, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393051374 ISBN 13: 9780393051377

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2004

Synopsis

Goldsmith looks at the woman behind the icon of scientific discovery, and shows Curie (1867-1934) trying to balance a spectacular scientific career with the obligations of family, the prejudice of society, the constant search for adequate funding, and the battle for recognition. She draws on diaries, letters, and family interviews. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About this title

About the Author:

Barbara Goldsmith is the author of Little Gloria...Happy at Last, Johnson v. Johnson, and Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull. She lives in New York City.

From Publishers Weekly:

So enduring is the reputation of Marie Curie that more than 100 years after she won her first Nobel Prize, for physics in 1903 (she won a second, for chemistry, in 1911), Curie (1867–1934) is still regarded by most as the pre-eminent woman scientist of the 20th century. Goldsmith's straightforward biography illuminates both the public Curie, a tireless scientist obsessed with work, and the private one, a woman who suffered bouts of severe depression, was distant from her children and scarred deeply by the accidental death of her scientist husband, Pierre, in 1906. Using long-sealed Curie family archives, Goldsmith offers a well-rounded view of her subject that makes good dramatic use of the considerable intrigue that surrounded Curie's scientific accomplishments and her private life. Goldsmith also reminds us, without belaboring the point, that Curie overcame obstacles, including pervasive sexism within the scientific community that almost cost her the Nobel. Goldsmith is also adept at demonstrating that for Curie the nexus of public accomplishments and private happiness was tenuous. Although Curie continued working after Pierre's death, Goldsmith says she never allowed his name to be spoken: "Never again would there be a sign of joy." Goldsmith, biographer of Gloria Vanderbilt and Victoria Woodhull, is weakest at explaining the theoretical basis for Curie's scientific breakthroughs, which set the stage for the exploration of the atom. B&w illus.
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About this edition

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0393051374
• ISBN 13: 9780393051377
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320