1965

The Nobel Prize

A telegram arrived on October 21, 1965.

Royal Academy of Sciences today awarded you and Tomonaga and Schwinger jointly the 1965 Nobel Prize for physics for your fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles stop prize money each one third stop our warm congratulations stop letter will follow

A deluge of congratulatory letters and telegrams arrived soon thereafter. What follows is the best of the bunch—letters from colleagues and other scientific luminaries, long-lost friends and acquaintances, former teachers and students. One friend from Far Rockaway High School days wrote, “I only remember you, of course, as a skinny—bright boy who loves music—fun too—with a wicked twinkle in your eye. From your picture in the paper—you look very much the same.” Another wrote with congratulations, remembering how Feynman contributed to their solid geometry class, the teacher “sitting back on his haunches letting you do his work for him. It’s strange how that seems to be one of the few classes I can recall with any degree of vividness.”

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO ERIK RUNDBERG, NOVEMBER 4, 1965

Professor Dr. Erik Rundberg

The Royal Swedish Academy of Science

Stockholm, Sweden

Dear Professor Rundberg:

Thank you for your letter confirming the telegram of my award of the Nobel Prize.You must know, of course, of the great excitement and pleasure such a telegram has meant to my family, my friends and acquaintances. I feel grateful and honored to have been considered for such a prize.

My wife and I are eagerly planning our trip to Stockholm.We expect to arrive late on December 7, and will surely attend, with great pleasure, the dinner on December 8 at your home.Thank you very much for the invitation.

I shall be glad to give my lecture on the afternoon of December 11, as you suggest. I shall send you the title as soon as I am sure of it.

We look forward to meeting you.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

JULES GREENBAUM TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 22, 1965 TELEGRAM

Dr. Richard Feynman:

California Inst. of Technology Pasadena Calif. Congratulations on your well-earned achievement. Our best wishes to you.

Jules and Rosalee Greenbaum

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO MR. AND MRS. JULES GREENBAUM, OCTOBER 23, 1965

Mr. and Mrs. Jules Greenbaum

New Rochelle, New York

Dear Rosalee and Jules,

I was surprised and happy to learn that I had won the prize, but to hear from you stirred memories of long ago.You too, must remember someone who would have really been happy this day.

Richard P. Feynman

Jules is Arline’s brother.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 22, 1965 TELEGRAM

Good news is always good medicine. I was delighted to learn of your winning the Nobel Prize in Physics.The nation is grateful for your example and I am personally thrilled to share in your happiness.Well done.

Lyndon B. Johnson

The White House

President Johnson had recently undergone successful gallbladder surgery. Two days prior to sending this telegram he had displayed his twelve-inch scar to the entire nation during a televised address.

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO LYNDON B. JOHNSON, OCTOBER 27, 1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson

The White House

Washington, D.C.

Dear President Johnson:

One of the great pleasures of being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics was receiving your telegram. I was surprised, honored, and delighted by it. May the news continue to be good and quickly restore your good health.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

ROBERT R. WILSON TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 22, 1965

What a pleasure and a gratification it has been to all of us in the Lab here that you have received the Nobel Prize you so much have deserved! We are looking forward, though, to your future work that we bet will match that already done. So get busy!

Warmest regards,

Robert R.Wilson

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO ROBERT R. WILSON, NOVEMBER 23, 1965

Dr. Robert R.Wilson

Cornell University

Laboratory of Nuclear Studies

Ithaca, New York

You still think you are my boss telling me to get busy! Is there no rest for the weary? Now that I have received the prize, what more do you expect of me.

Thank you very much for your note.

Richard P. Feynman

HANS A. BETHE TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 21, 1965

I just heard the wonderful news.You certainly deserved the Prize; I have thought so for at least ten years. I am very happy that the Nobel Committee showed such good taste.

Yours sincerely,

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO HANS A. BETHE, NOVEMBER 30, 1965

Professor Hans A. Bethe

Laboratory of Nuclear Studies

Cornell University

Ithaca, New York

You know how much I owe to you so congratulations to you too.

Thank you very much for your letter. Best regards.

Richard P. Feynman

Bethe would receive his Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967.

EDWARD TELLER TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 27, 1965

Congratulations! It is wonderful that you and Julian should share the Nobel Prize, which I am sure you deserve in a like manner, although in no other respect do you seem to resemble each other. I think you will illustrate to the Swedes in an excellent manner that not all Americans are alike.

I wish I could be there to observe you when you are on your best behavior in your interaction with the King of Sweden. It will be quite a phenomenon.

With best wishes,

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO EDWARD TELLER, NOVEMBER 30, 1965

Professor Edward Teller

University of California, Davis

Livermore, California

Thank you for your kind letter of congratulations. The phenomenon you wish to observe with my interaction with the King of Sweden frightens me as much as it interests you. Anything can happen, but I suppose nothing really will. I hope I get through it alive. It was good to hear from you.

Richard P. Feynman

LAURIE BROWN TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 21, 1965 TELEGRAM

Congratulations for a recognition long overdue. I have always been proud to know you, and grateful for what you have given me and for what you have added to the excitement, fun, and seriousness of our profession.

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO LAURIE M. BROWN, NOVEMBER 2, 1965

Dr. Laurie M. Brown

Physics Department

Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois

Dear Dr. Brown:

I am all excited by all the congratulations telegrams, but yours stood out and meant an especially great deal to me. It was like another little prize. Thank you very much.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO HERBERT JEHLE, NOVEMBER 29, 1965

Dr. Herbert Jehle

Department of Physics

George Washington University

Washington, D.C.

Dear Dr. Jehle:

Thank you for your post card of congratulations. It is all because you showed me Dirac’s Article in the library at Princeton. Thank you very much.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

ISIDOR I. RABI TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 27, 1965

I can’t tell you how delighted I was to hear the good news, not only on your account, but also on Julian’s. He was my first authentic, honest to goodness degree student to get the prize.Tomonaga is a good guy too so I expect you will have a good time together in Stockholm.

I do hope it will be possible for you to stop off in New York either going or coming so that I could convey my pleasure orally.

One word of advice from one whose great day was twenty-one years ago. Don’t let it get you down.You will be even more on the shopping list of those who want to waste your time.Tell them to go to hell.

Cheers and best wishes.

Affectionately,

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO ISIDOR I. RABI, NOVEMBER 22, 1965

Department of Physics

Columbia University

New York, New York

Thank you very much for your note of congratulations and advice—I needed advice.

Right after I learned about winning the prize, I heard a refrain going around in my head “It ain’t the money, it’s the principle of the thing” and a vision of your playing paper and comb twenty-one years ago.

I am sorry, I shall not be able to stop off in New York, either coming or going as I have a letter from a professor suggesting that I take very good care of my time.

Kindest personal regards.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

JULIUS ASHKIN TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 29, 1965

I just want to tell you how everyone here, some who were at Los Alamos, others whom you haven’t met, and especially the students, who are avidly reading your lectures, responded with spontaneous pleasure to the news of your Nobel prize. Beauty in physics is its own reward, but the formal recognition serves a general purpose.

With best wishes to you and Gweneth, and to Carl, from all of us,

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO JULIUS ASHKIN, NOVEMBER 23, 1965

Professor Julius Ashkin

Carnegie Institute of Technology

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Thank you very much for your kind note of congratulations. It was great to hear from you. I am sure that if the paper that I finally published was not so carefully corrected and studied by you before publication, it would not have been considered worthy by the Nobel Committee. So you see that I owe you not only the great pleasure of having had your personal acquaintance but also ultimately, no doubt, the fact that I received the Nobel Prize.

Best wishes to the entire family. I hope we meet together soon somewhere.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO M. S. VALLARTA, NOVEMBER 22, 1965

Dr. M. S.Vallarta

Comision Nacional de Energia Nuclear

Insurgentes Sur 1079

Mexico 18, D. F. Mexico

Thank you for your telegram of congratulations. May I thank you for your part in this. I appreciate what you taught me and the encouragement you gave me, including collaboration to publish my first paper.

Kindest personal regards.

Richard P. Feynman

FELIX BLOCH TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 24, 1965

My warmest congratulations to you and to your wife for the Nobel Prize! I wish I could be at the ceremonies in Stockholm to hear what you are going to say.

Wishing you both a most enjoyable trip and with cordial regards

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO FELIX BLOCH, NOVEMBER 22, 1965

Professor Felix Bloch

Palo Alto, California

Thank you for your note of congratulations. I wish I knew what I was going to say at the ceremonies in Stockholm. Any advice on that and how to walk backward from the King without stumbling would be sincerely appreciated.

Kindest personal regards.

Richard P. Feynman

DONALD JONES TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 21, 1965 TELEGRAM

Congratulations on Nobel award. Delighted to see that good textbook writing finally is being recognized.

Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.

Reading, Massachusetts

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO DONALD JONES AND STAFF, OCTOBER 23, 1965

Mr. Donald Jones and Staff

Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.

Reading, Massachusetts

Dear Mr. Jones, et al:

Thank you for your telegram of congratulations. I was quite unaware of your enormous influence with the Nobel Committee and shall never underestimate the power of a publishing company.

Thanks to all of you who conceived and carried out this ingenious publicity maneuver.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

TOM DAILEY TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 21, 1965

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

INTER-OFFICE MEMO

TO R.P. Feynman

FROM Tom Dailey

I couldn’t find an appropriate card to send you. Congratulations.

035

Tom Dailey’s “card” on Throop Hall.

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO THOMAS M. DAILEY, OCTOBER 23, 1965

Mr.Thomas M. Dailey

You certainly did find an “appropriate card” to congratulate me. That great sign on Throop was, to me, one of the most exciting and meaningful signs of congratulation that I have received. Please accept my thanks and convey to all your cronies who risked their lives to put it up how much I appreciated and enjoyed it.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

SANDRA CHESTER TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 22, 1965 TELEGRAM

Hail the Nobel Prize Committee for its recognition of your unsurpassed achievement in the field of bongo artistry.

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO SANDRA CHESTER, DATE UNKNOWN

I was delighted too when I heard about the Nobel Prize, thinking as you did that my bongo playing was at last recognized. Imagine my chagrin when I realized that there had been some mistake—they cited some marks I made on paper some 15 years ago—and not one word about percussion technique.

I know you share in my disappointment.

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO DAVID KRAUS, OCTOBER 23, 1965

Science Department

Far Rockaway High School

Far Rockaway, New York

Dear Mr. Kraus, et al,

Thank you for your telegram of congratulations.

No one can do anything alone and all the influences of parents, teachers and friends add up to make a success. In my case, I have always been conscious of the very large contribution given me by my high school. I hope you are doing as well for all the other students as you did for me.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

H. H. BARSCHALL TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 21, 1965

When I was a graduate student, some of the other students were making nasty remarks about a young student who had recently arrived and who claimed to know so much that he did not even need to take any courses. A little later, after I had unsuccessfully approached several professors to obtain assistance with a calculation, I decided to try out the newcomer and was impressed and delighted by receiving promptly a complete solution.

Not long thereafter, the mood of the students changed to depression as we began to wonder whether we were not in the wrong field of study because it was clear to all that we were not in the same class of intellectual ability with you. It was obvious that we had a potential Nobel Prize winner in our midst. My only surprise was how long it took the Swedish Academy to arrive at the same conclusion.

I was delighted to hear the announcement and should like to congratulate you on the well-deserved honor.

H. H. Barschall

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO H. H. BARSCHALL, NOVEMBER 30, 1965

Professor H. H. Barschall

Physics Department

University of Wisconsin

Madison,Wisconsin

Thanks very much for your very kind letter of congratulations.

You have kept the secret a long time—I never realized that other students had made nasty remarks about me. Maybe it’s too late now to become unhappy about it. Especially, after all the nice remarks you made about me in your letter.

I certainly enjoyed knowing you in our school days and also at Los Alamos. I appreciated your letter very much.

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO THE BROTHERS OF PI LAMBDA PHI, NOVEMBER 2, 1965

The Brothers of Pi Lambda Phi

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Thank you very much for your telegram of congratulations. π λ Φ (as Φ β ∆) is the place where I was transformed from a one-sided boy scientist to a more balanced man who could both integrate and dance (although not equally well).

I also remember I left the place with a credit in my account of $70, which I never collected. I hereby release you of that debt since I am feeling flush and happy these days.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

WALTER BLEAKNEY TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 22, 1965 TELEGRAM

The entire Dept. of Physics at Princeton Univ. congratulates you on the Nobel award.

Walter Bleakney

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO WALTER BLEAKNEY, OCTOBER 29, 1965

Dr.Walter Bleakney

Palmer Physical Laboratory

Princeton University

Princeton, New Jersey

Dear Dr. Bleakney:

Thank you for your telegram of congratulations in behalf of the Princeton Physics Department.

It seems to me that you ought to congratulate yourselves for having made it possible.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

LARS SÖDERSTRÖM TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 27, 1965

The Union of Student of Science at the Stockholm University congratulates you sincerely on your being awarded the Nobel Prize.

On December 13th we are having our Lucia celebration, a specifically Swedish tradition commemorating the return of light to our winter’s darkness, to which solemn occasion we have made it a tradition to invite the Nobel Prize winners of science.

We should very much appreciate your attending our celebration during which you will be dubbed a knight of the Order of the ever Smiling and Jumping Frog like formerly most Nobel Prize winners of chemistry and physics.

On your arrival in Sweden we shall have the pleasure of sending you a formal invitation, and we hope that you will reserve this evening for us.

Yours sincerely,

Lars Söderström

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO LARS SÖDERSTRÖM, NOVEMBER 19, 1965

President Lars Söderström

Naturvetenskapliga Föreningen

vid Stockholms universitet

Stockholm, Sweden

Dear President Söderström:

Thank you very much for your letter of congratulations. I shall be most happy to become a knight of the Order of the ever Smiling and Jumping Frogs. I have been that way ever since I was advised that I had won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

SONNY LUNDIN TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, NOVEMBER 13, 1965

This is to convey our warm congratulations for your outstanding contributions to the science of physics.

We have been informed, however, that you very likely will have the opportunity to personally visit our city and receive the Nobel Prize from the old, but well balanced and graceful hand of our supreme ruler HM the King of Sweden, and, we pray and presume, to give a lecture at our institute, as the custom has always been.

We would also be very glad indeed, had you and your possible family the time and opportunity to be present at our “Lucia-festival” in the morning of December 13th. The Lucia morning is something very Swedish, a custom which probably seems quite exotic to the rest of the world.The party is very informal and beings at 7:30 A.M. in the localities of the Student Union, where professors and students of the department for Physics have coffee and glögg (a drink especially composed for this occasion) and enjoy the serene Lucia procession.

We fully understand that you as all academics highly appreciate a morning of sounds sleep, and we are quite aware of our intrusion, but still we innocently hope to see you the morning in question.

Hoping that you will have a pleasant stay in our country, we remain, Dear Sir,

Sincerely yours,

For the Section of Technical Physics

at the Student Union of the Royal Institute of Technology

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO SONNY LUNDIN, NOVEMBER 22, 1965

Professor Sonny Lundin

Technical Physics Section

Royal Institute of Technology

Stockholm, Sweden

Dear Professor Lundin:

Thank you very much for your letter of congratulations. I also appreciate your kind invitation to attend your “Lucia-festival” on December 13.

I want to reply in the affirmative; however, I have become somewhat confused by several invitations. I am supposed to become a frog sometime during the day. If there is no conflict in time, I shall be happy to be awakened early—thank you.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

036

Red carpet entrance at Hughes Aircraft Company.

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO JOHN M. RICHARDSON, NOVEMBER 1, 1965

Dr. John M. Richardson

Hughes Research Laboratories

Malibu, California

Dear Dr. Richardson:

Boy, was I surprised by the reception I got when coming to Hughes last week. Please convey to all the people there how happy they made me by the reception and how immodestly I enjoyed the applause upon my arrival. I would suspect that in Stockholm the circumstances can be no more exciting than cutting that wonderful cake. I do not think they have Swedish cake makers who can design such an appropriate icing. My congratulatory card is admired by all who come into the office.

I have been avidly reading the book about the Nobel Prize so I shall have some idea of what I am in for. Please give my sincere thanks to everybody, it really made me feel good.

I promise this Wednesday to get back to work and give a lecture on superconductivity. Again my appreciation,

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

MARTIN B. EINHORN TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 23, 1965

Dear Dr. Feynman,

As one of the guinea pigs of the original “Feynman Lectures” of three years ago, I find that I have been entrusted with an amusing responsibility. Now that the lectures have become popular reading among all physics students, a person who heard them is presumed to have understood them all. Joking aside, I enjoyed them very much, and, having now begun graduate study in theoretical physics, I appreciate even more the “head start” I got at Caltech because of the revision of the physics curriculum.

Congratulations on your Nobel award. In an age of “publish or perish” it has been my pleasure to have come into contact with a good physicist who was also a good teacher.

Martin B. Einhorn

037

Leaving Hughes Aircraft Company.

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO MARTIN B. EINHORN, NOVEMBER 22, 1965

Mr. Martin B. Einhorn

Palmer Physical Laboratory

Princeton University

Princeton, New Jersey

Congratulations on having survived the experiment three years ago. It’s nice to know that some of the students still exist.

Thank you for your note of congratulations.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO THE CALIFORNIA TECH, NOVEMBER 2, 1965

I prefer to believe that it was a lack of journalistic experience rather than of goodwill which accounts for the qualities of that “extra” which you put out in connection with my receiving the award of the Nobel Prize.¹⁶

First of all, that you have used a candid shot instead of a posed picture on such an important occasion is incredible.What will the Nobel Committee think after the months of deliberation and careful selection, to find out how their choice is considered by a newspaper of an institution so closely connected to the winner? And, the misspelling of “says” as “sez” requires no further comment for careless writing and careless proofreaders are all one can expect of the Tech.

There are two glaring faults which show that your reporters are most amateurish in the performance of their duties.The most amazing blunder was to apologize for taking up my time when they interviewed me and to introduce the request by saying “I know you must be very busy with more important matters!” Secondly that the entire article was clear, comprehensible, well-written and accurate can only be explained by a complete disregard of professional standards in these matters. For example, I was not able to find, attributed to me, a single quotation of anything that I did not say myself.

I wonder if you could send me a dozen copies of this article—I should like to use it when more professional organizations ask for an explanation of what I did to win the prize. I should like to be able to give them a copy of what not to write.

Sincerely grateful to you all for a good job.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

HUBERT H. HUMPHREY TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, NOVEMBER 12, 1965

Dear Dr. Feynman:

May I add my heartfelt congratulations on the great honor you have received? The Nobel Prize is fitting recognition of your outstanding achievements in physics.

I hope you will continue to make many more notable contributions to man’s unending quest for knowledge.

You can be very proud in the honor you have brought to our nation and to international science.

Hubert H. Humphrey

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO HUBERT H. HUMPHREY, NOVEMBER 22, 1965

Mr. Hubert H. Humphrey

The Vice-President

Mr.Vice-President:

Thank you for your very kind letter of congratulations on my winning the Nobel Prize. As you can well imagine receiving this letter from you has added greatly to the excitement and happiness of my family. It was a special pleasure to me to receive a letter from a man that I have admired for so long.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON TO RICHARD FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 22, 1965

CONGRATULATIONS! Too bad they took so long to get around to you.You had me worried for the past ten years even though you did win the Einstein Award a few years back. However the papers clarified things a bit this morning explaining the delay. For a time I thought the bongo drums or the hexaflexagons were diverting you from the main stream. But we all knew it had to happen—and it did.

It’s a far cry—thirty six years to be exact—from the days when you used to pedal your bike from old P.S. 39 down to the new high school and ask me for some experiments to do. The school had just opened and all the equipment was brand new and I used to trot out the magnets, overflow cans, or whatever you wanted to play around with. Since it was after three o’clock you had the place to yourself after I let you in the door near the laboratory.

Then a year or two later, you entered as a student and it wasn’t long before you were at it again, this time as a chemistry student.You used to keep the pressure on me until I finally decided to let you do an experiment that was fairly difficult for a high school pupil, namely, the determination of the Avogadro Number. Once we assembled the rather crude apparatus, I left you on your own and a day or so later you came up with an answer of 5.6 x 10²³, which I thought was quite amazing and worked with you on refining it. I repeated it several years later in another school where I became chairman of science and then decided to publish it. A copy is enclosed.

I’ve missed meeting up with you a couple of times along the way—at a Physics Teachers’ meetings in N.Y. and once when I lectured at the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh some years back.There they asked me if I ever came across any outstanding students and I mentioned your name only to be told that you had lectured there only a short time previously.

Whenever I see Abe Bader at Science Chairmen’s meetings we usually exchange notes on you, and of course, last night we really went to town. Dr. Wierda and Mr. Barnes are retired and the latter is nearly 85 and living up state. When I write to him or see him on rare occasions he always inquires about you. I know he’d like to hear from you. He lives at 18 Congress St.,Trumansburg, N.Y.

Incidentally, we would all like to felicitate you personally on one of your trips east.Your accomplishments make us all feel that teaching has been worthwhile even though we all realize that you would have accomplished what you did regardless of any teacher.

Again, my heartiest congratulations.

Sincerely yours,

Joseph E. Johnston

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO J. E. JOHNSTON, NOVEMBER 24, 1965

Mr. J. E. Johnston

Eastern District High School

Brooklyn, New York

Dear Mr. Johnston:

Thank you for the congratulations! So exciting to hear from you. I certainly remember all the times I came down on my bicycle from P.S. 39 to work in the High School Lab. I learned a lot from you and it was very inspiring. I was glad to hear all the news about Dr. Wierda and Mr. Barnes, but the story about the electrolysis experiment you had told me before. I certainly remember it very well, including the moment we thought of connecting an electric clock to the same switch that we used to turn on the current through the water. I have always felt though that we did not really measure Avogadro’s number, but only what is called the Faraday. We had to use Milikan’s value of the charge on the electron and that experiment is the one that deals with the very small quantities. That is the one where all the difficulty is. But I guess it wasn’t bad for high school students. As a result of winning this prize I have received so many letters from old teachers and students from Far Rockaway High School that I have resolved to go back and visit the school for a day some time in the beginning of next year.The principal there invited me. I do not know yet which day.

You have apparently forgotten that we met near Columbia University one day in the street and went into a drug store to have sodas and had a long conversation.

Thank you very much again for your letter and more particularly thank you for all that you did for me before and during the time I was a student at Far Rockaway High School.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

ABRAM BADER TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 30, 1965

A belated letter of congratulation has a better chance of being read, since it isn’t swamped by a host of others. In any case, you can apply time reversal to it and read it last week.

I was very happy to hear about the long-overdue awarding of the Nobel Prize. I can now bask in the reflected glory and claim that when the committee realized that you were once in my class, they had no choice.

The second volume of your textbook finally reached me and warmed the cockles of my heart when I read the kind reference to a discussion we once had. I have never forgotten another time when you asked Rube Miller and myself about the advisability of your taking courses in Education so that you could become a high school teacher. I suspect that you would have been a good teacher, but what a waste of talent.We simply laughed at your thought.

A picture published in a Long Island newspaper shows a handsome young boy in your lap. My own son is five years old and insists he is going to win the Nobel Prize himself. He has already constructed a time machine with his Tinkertoy set and was somewhat disappointed when it did not send him back to World War II so that he could join me in the Royal Air Force (I was involved in radar work).

Again let me congratulate you and point out that there is no law or precedent against doing it again. By the way, the message from Mr. Seiden about your call to him was somewhat puzzling.What was it all about?

Best wishes to you and your family.

Yours sincerely,

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO ABRAM BADER, NOVEMBER 29, 1965

Mr. Abram Bader

John Jay High School

Brooklyn, New York

Dear Mr. Bader:

Thank you very much for your letter of congratulations. I am glad that you have seen the second volume of my textbook.The discussion we had about action was not the only one that I remember. I have a great deal to thank you for in aiming me and educating me in the direction of physics. I did not remember the time I asked you about the advisability of taking courses in education but I see that you supplied me with not only a good education but good advice. Another thing that I remember as being very important to me was the time when you called me down after class and said “You make too much noise in class.”Then you went on to say that you understood the reason, that it was that the class was entirely too boring. Then you pulled out a book from behind you and said “Here, you read this, take it up to the back of the room, sit all alone, and study this; when you know everything that is in it, you can talk again.” And so, in my physics class I paid no attention to what was going on, but only studied Woods’ “Advanced Calculus” up in the back of the room. It was there that I learned about gamma functions, elliptic functions, and differentiating under an integral sign. A trick at which I became an expert. Many years later when I was teaching mathematical methods of physics, to graduate students at Cornell, one of the students, wanting to object to the fact that I was dealing with such an advanced subject, asked me in what year I learned the subject. Before I could realize his purpose and how much my answer would bother him, I answered immediately, “in High School.” It was very exciting for me to have you as a teacher in High School, and you certainly knew how to stretch a young boy’s mind to the utmost of achievement. Thank you very much.

I am glad to hear about your son; mine is three and a half and does not have quite the control with his Tinkertoy set as your boy has, for he has not yet been able to construct a time machine, even one that does not work.

Perhaps by this time you know what the message from Mr. Seiden is all about. It is this. It had nothing to do with the Nobel Prize, and was initiated before that Prize was announced. The American Association of Physics Teachers representative, Mr. E. U. Condon, called me to say that they honor every year specially good teachers in physics, and that Professor Philip Morrison had been reading my textbook, and suggested that one possibility would be to honor you as an example of a teacher who knew how to handle (excuse my immodesty) an exceptional student. So, sometime in January, at a meeting in New York, they want to give you some sort of citation. I hope that they have been in touch with you about it. The reason Mr. Seiden was involved is that I had to call him to get your address.

It certainly is a pleasure to have been in touch with you again and to find out that you are well and happy. Best wishes to you and your family.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO HOWARD LEMBERG, DECEMBER 6, 1965

Mr. Howard Lemberg, Editor

Far Rockaway High School

Far Rockaway, New York

Thank you very much for your congratulations on my receiving the Nobel Prize.

When I saw the envelope I suddenly remembered from long ago the name of a paper I had read often but had nearly forgotten. I was very pleased by your offering me a chance to write in the paper, and I put your letter aside hoping each day to send you an answer. But I have been far busier than I expected and have not had the opportunity to answer you.

In the meantime, however, another possibility has arisen. I have decided to come and visit my old school sometime in January. At that time I hope I will have a chance to talk to the students directly. If you wish, at that time I could be interviewed by your reporters or do whatever you would like.

I know that the newspaper business depends on timing of the news and articles, so I hope you will excuse my late answer to your special delivery letter. I shall try to make it up to you as well as I can this January, when I hope I may also meet you personally.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

In an interview on January 10, 1966, Feynman told The Chat that when he was a student at Far Rockaway High School he was “no good in English, no good in languages, impossibly poor in drawing, and a goody-good boy in school. I’ve changed.”

HAROLD I. LIEF TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, NOVEMBER 10, 1965

I have been meaning for a few weeks to add my congratulations to the accolades you have been receiving for the most honored recognition society can bestow.

If our teacher of solid geometry back at FRHS, Mr. Augsbury, is still alive, he must be proud indeed. It’s amusing to think how you used to teach that class with “Old Augsbury” sitting back on his haunches letting you do his work for him. It’s strange how that seems to be one of the few classes I can recall with any degree of vividness.

I am so happy to see your work earn the world-wide recognition that it assuredly deserves.

With warmest regards,

Sincerely yours,

Harold I. Lief, M.D.

Professor of Psychiatry

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO HAROLD I. LIEF, NOVEMBER 30, 1965

Harold I. Lief, M.D.

Tulane University

School of Medicine

New Orleans, Louisiana

Thank you very much for your note of congratulations. One of the big pleasures of getting this prize was to hear from very old friends, that I would not have ordinarily expected to hear from. I remember you whispering German words in my ear, when I was stuck trying to read in the German class. Many thanks for your assistance in getting through.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO MORRIE JACOBS, NOVEMBER 24, 1965

Mr. Morrie Jacobs

Wantagh, Long Island

I was disappointed by your note of congratulations, you did not tell me what has happened to you, and how you are making out. Old friends should tell each other what they are doing. I have a boy now of three and a half, and a very sweet English wife (guess which came first). I remember you my good friend very well, so many hours spent in the back of your father’s luggage shop, discussing serious subjects, and watching you paint signs. Please write me a note telling me more about your present situation.

038

TOP Feynman,1928.

BOTTOM Feynman, 1920.

Sincerely Yours,

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO BERTHA COHEN, NOVEMBER 15, 1965

Mrs. Bertha S. Cohen

New York, New York

Dear Mrs. Cohen,

Thank you very much for your note about the Nobel Prize. It was good to hear from such an old friend of the family.

I suspect it was something you must have taught me when holding me when I was a baby that enabled me to receive the award.

My best regards to Johanna and to you.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO JESSE M. DAVIDSON, DECEMBER 6, 1965

Mrs. Jesse M. Davidson

New York, New York

Thank you so much for your note of congratulations. It is good to hear from someone who had known me for so long.You have gone through all the stages with mother, from ruined linen towels to mom’s worrying about whether I would blow up the house with my laboratory.

It all came out pretty nicely, you see.

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO MIMI PHILLIPS, NOVEMBER 15, 1965

Miss Mimi J. Phillips

Miami Beach, Florida

Thanks very much for your note of congratulations. It was fun to hear from you and to find out that you are doing so well as a nurse.

Thanks also for sending the newspaper article, I had not seen anything from U.P. before that came. I did appreciate the thought in your sending it along.

Your comment that I have gotten fat from Gweneth’s cooking is mistaken. I was thin before when you last saw me because of worry about things and all the running around. . . now I am settled down. Well, maybe the food has something to do with it too!

Richard P. Feynman

REVD. JOHN ALEX AND MRS. HOWARD TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, NOVEMBER 16, 1965

Reverend John Howard christened Feynman’s English nephew, Christopher Shaw.

Dear Dr & Mrs Feynman,

This sounds awfully formal, but I don’t wish to sound in any way cheeky. Actually, we think of you as Richard and Gweneth, here. But you will not think we do it to be rude, but rather that because of Eric and Jackie and Auntie Minnie, we feel you are part of the family here.

Marjorie and I want to say how tremendously thrilled we were to hear about your being awarded the Nobel Prize. This is simply wonderful, and really a great honour indeed, and everyone here is so very glad for your sake, and sharing in the joy and gladness that has come to you. As a matter of fact, I heard it over the radio, but I just didn’t believe it, and thought—“No—it can’t be, but the name is very like yours!” Actually, they pronounced it “Fineman.” But Auntie Minnie said it really was you, and that this is how they pronounced your name in the States.You have our sincere congratulations on what must be a very wonderful event in your life, and we hope that when you go to Sweden it will be a very exciting and uplifting time for you all. I wonder if we shall see you when you pass through? I dare say you won’t get to Britain this time.

We saw your book advertised in the Radio Times, and I hope it isn’t too difficult for amateurs, for I intend to buy it at Christmas time and read it. This work is all very, very important indeed, and the things that are happening, and those that will happen, will stagger the whole world, for we can make life very different altogether for the year 1980 and onwards. I wonder if we shall be able to use all our knowledge and technology to deal with the de-salination of the sea, and the re-forestation of the areas that need trees, and the reclaiming of the desert? It is wonderful to hear of these new petroleum products with which one can spray the deserts, and which allow moisture through, but don’t allow it to evaporate out through the sun’s heat.

But as well as dealing with the technology, and droughts etc, we have to deal with people, with the color problem, with nationalism, with Communism, and with the greatest of all problems—the materialism and selfishness in all our hearts.Yet I believe that could we rise to the challenge, a new world could be born. The question is, whether we will, because our aims and motives are so small and very often don’t go beyond our own families.Yet I’m sure that you people in America think much more globally than we do, and the true American has a big and generous heart. I’m aware that there is sometimes a very different image of an American. So there is of British people!! But underneath, there are still millions of fine people, serving all over the world, and I feel that Vietnam is something that must be fought out, and I back what America is doing, for despite any mistakes made or wrongs done, it is still the Western World that has in it the seeds of Christian Faith, which is better than any alien ideology of hate or class. Our job—yours and mine—is to live this out, and I know that wherever you as a family go, your naturalness and love, and simplicity will give many people new hope and faith. So many thanks to you for your work. Our love from us both. God bless you all.

Yours sincerely,

Marjorie and John Howard

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO REVD. JOHN ALEX AND MRS. HOWARD, DECEMBER 6, 1965

Revd. John Alex and Mrs. Howard

Ripponden, Near Halifax,

Yorkshire, England

Dear Marjorie and John:

This sounds very informal, but I want you to continue thinking of us as Gweneth and Richard.

I was very pleased by your fine letter of congratulations. Everything that comes from Ripponden pleases me because the people took me in so nicely that I feel like I am part of it, for part of my family live there. Although we only met on a few occasions, one of my friends in Ripponden is you.

You write that true Americans have a big and generous heart, which shows only what a big and generous heart you have. For you must know that a great nation, at least one where the British ideas of freedom flourish, is very complex and side by side lie the great and the mean, the generous and the selfish, just as they lie side by side in each man.

To see generosity you must be generous enough not to see the meanness, and to see just meanness in a man you must be mean enough not to see the generosity.

I am sorry I will not be able to stop by on the way to Stockholm, but surely I will come back to Ripponden again soon—just to show off how Carl is doing. So we shall have another chance to talk.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO ARNOLD H. PHILLIPS, NOVEMBER 18, 1965

Mr. Arnold H. Phillips

Phillips News Co., Inc.

Wheeling,West Virginia

Thanks for your letter of congratulations.We have to do something to make news so you will have something to distribute, so I felt happy to help your business. I heard from Mimi Jean as you might have guessed and she seemed pretty excited. I keep thinking of her as a little girl, but she isn’t anymore, I guess.

Probably you have heard that Joan had a girl baby and Mom was visiting when the prize was announced, so she came running home. Mom seems to be happy in her new apartment which she recently moved into.

Do not be too mad at Mike for his C in physics. I got a C in English Literature. Maybe I never would have received a prize in physics if I had been better in English.

Anyway, thanks for your letter, I hope to see you all again very soon. Gweneth joins me in sending our love to you and yours.

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD D. PETTIT TO DR. AND MRS. RICHARD FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 25, 1965

Congratulations to you both on the announcement of the Nobel Prize Award to Richard in physics. This is a great achievement and I am very happy for you.

May I add that I was very pleased with the modesty which you met the press. I felt this was a true scientific reaction to such an award, and think the more of you for it.

With sincere personal regards,

Richard D. Pettit, M.D.

Dr. Pettit was the obstetrician who delivered Carl.

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO RICHARD D. PETTIT, NOVEMBER 15, 1965

Richard D. Pettit, M.D.

Pasadena, California

Dear Dr. Pettit:

Thank you very much for your letter of congratulations. I was very pleased by it.

039

Richard and Carl, 1965.

I was surprised to read your comment about my meeting the press that you did not mention how cute and wonderful my little boy looks. Could that be modesty?

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO DR. AND MRS. HERMAN F. DAVIS, NOVEMBER 29, 1965

Dear Dr. and Mrs. Davis:

Thank you very much for your telegram of congratulations. It is fun to get a telegram from someone you can yell across the street to. So I guess you won’t mind a letter even though I could have yelled back, “Thanks.”

Richard P. Feynman

BETSY HOLLAND GEHMAN TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 27, 1965

Your mysterious charm (a direct quote from your own writings) seems to be pushing you out of your ivory tower again.

I know how you hate notoriety, so my sympathies are with you on this sad occasion. Those Nobel people are no respecters of the scientists’ rights to pretend they are not great copy.

This is the penalty you pay for thinking. At least for thinking in that extraordinary way.

Despite evidence to the contrary, I hold proof that your thought processes are not too far different than those of the igNobel masses: on the note you sent me on January 4 of this year, you wrote the dateline 1964. . . even as I do for nearly the entire month of January. It takes me that long to admit I’m a year older, too.

Congratulations. Now, back to the I.T.

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO BETSY HOLLAND GEHMAN, NOVEMBER 23, 1965

Mrs. Betsy Holland Gehman

Carmel, New York

Thank you very much for your note of congratulations. It is very hard to be pushed out of the ivory tower, the light is so strong that it hurts. What hurts worse is to think of myself in tails receiving something from the King of Sweden, while the television cameras are watching. It would be all right if they would just give you the prize, but to make you go through the ringer to get it is a dirty trick.

Thanks for your note, it was fun to hear from you.

Richard P. Feynman

JACK LIBERMAN TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 31, 1965

I hope after all these years, I may address you in this fashion.

First of all, let me offer my congratulations on your having shared this year’s Nobel Physics Prize.

Before I go any further, let me explain who I am. When you were a Senior at M.I.T., I was a Freshman and a fellow member of Phi Beta Delta. I doubt if you remember me, but even then it was easy to see that you were destined to go places. However, it is the human traits I remember. One weekend, for some dance, I had my girl from New York come up and you did not. So when I took her up to the second floor meeting room to neck, you joined us to talk and then remark that we should forget you were there—you just wanted to watch—funny thing, as I recall it, we did forget you were there. I remember your spending a week-end with some deaf and dumb people you met learning the alphabet—I remember a discussion at meal time about how close did froglegs or shrimp (I forget) taste like chicken.

I’m sure I had a hero’s crush on you.And since that time, I have followed your career with interest and pride.

Today, I teach Physics and Chemistry at Sharon High School in Sharon, Massachusetts. Actually it’s a unified two year sequence based on Phillips Exeter Academy’s Course. Then for the past two years, for my Advanced Physics class, I have used your first volume of “The Feynman Lectures on Physics” as the basis for the course. It has been very challenging.

I’ve been married since 1943, have a 20 year old son and 16 year old twin girls. . . We’ve lived in Boston, New Hampshire, Florida and now Massachusetts.

So this has just been a note to congratulate you, to wish you continued success, and just to enjoy a little of your reflected fame as one having known you, years ago.

Sincerely yours,

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO JACK LIBERMAN, NOVEMBER 30, 1965

Bridgewater, Massachusetts

You were wrong in your letter of congratulations, I do remember you and was very glad to hear how you were making out. My God, you must have had a hero’s crush. Any normal guy under the circumstances would have told me three is a crowd and told me to go to hell, please accept my apologies after all these years for bothering you.

The discussion you described all about how close froglegs taste like chicken seems to be typical of me, I have never tasted froglegs. I seem always to get into discussions of that kind, where I know nothing about the subject. That does not stop me from giving strong opinions however. I am married now, and have only one son of three and one half. If you ever get out this way, please let me know and we can talk over old times.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

ALAN FARLEY TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 29, 1965

Dear Prof. Feynman:

I’m sure that you won’t remember me, but I was one of the original members of your “Physics X” discussions that began after dinner in Blacker House one night. I know that I speak for all the members of that group, as well as all Caltech students who have ever come in contact with you, when I congratulate you on winning the Nobel Prize; we always hoped and expected that you would someday receive it.

My best wishes to you on this happy occasion.

Acting Chairman

Dep’t of Mathematics

Morehouse College

“Physics X” was an unofficial, non-credit class Feynman held at Caltech where students prepared physics questions. He would entertain any question about physics, whether it dealt with his specialty or not. Other faculty members were not allowed to attend.

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO ALAN FARLEY, NOVEMBER 29, 1965

Dr. Alan Farley

Department of Mathematics

Morehouse College

Dear Dr. Farley:

Thank you very much for your note of congratulations. I see that my “Physics X” discussions did not do any good, you ended up as Acting Chairman of the Department of Mathematics.Well, all we can do is try.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

EDWIN J. WESELY TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 22, 1965

My family and I, as well as millions of others, salute you on the great honor of being awarded the Nobel Prize. While I am in no position to judge, I understand from members of your particular “racket,” who must be disciples of yours, that the honor is at least a bit over-due.

While your drumming was limited to file cabinets at Telluride House, is the rumor really true that you intend to use the proceeds of the prize for the purpose of developing an improved file cabinet-bongo drum?

Incidentally, while you may recall the double date we had with the Brazilian twins, I am not entirely sure that it has ever been reported to you that I married one of them and we now have two daughters who are ten and eight years old.

Congratulations again on your very great achievement.

With kindest best wishes and warmest regards, I am

Very sincerely yours,

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO EDWIN J. WESELY, NOVEMBER 30, 1965

Mr. Edwin J.Wesely

Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam and Roberts, Law Offices

New York, New York

The greatest fun of getting this prize is hearing from old friends. I was very happy to hear from you and I vaguely remember that I knew you were married to one of the Brazilian twins.What’s happened to the other one? Oops—I almost forgot that I am a married man and have a boy of three-and-a-half.

It was at Telluride that I did do all that stuff for which I got the prize, so I look back at those days with nostalgia.

Thank you very much for your letter.

Richard P. Feynman

DAVID L. ANDERSON TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, NOVEMBER 8, 1965

Dear Professor Feynman:

Early in September I suggested your name to the Oberlin Assembly Committee as a possible speaker.

With magnificently inept timing, President Carr, has now, I understand, gotten around to writing to ask you to come. Probably, as the result of recent events, you have had to hire a secretary to do nothing but write letters declining invitations to speak. But I simply want to add to whatever the president said, the hopes of the Physics Department that you might have a free Thursday sometime in the next era of geological time, and that you will be able to come. Articulate scientists are not easy to find.

You may—or may not—remember me as a fellow-tenant of Dorm T- 101, or whatever it was, at Los Alamos, and as a fellow participant in the Mack-Brixner week among the Navaho.

In any event, let me be the 13,795th person to congratulate you on the well-deserved prize.

With best wishes,

David L. Anderson

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO DAVID L. ANDERSON, NOVEMBER 22, 1965

Dr. David L. Anderson

Chairman, Department of Physics

Oberlin College

Dear Dr. Anderson:

I am sorry to have to tell you that you guessed right and I am too busy, on account of recent events, to be able to accept your invitation to speak at Oberlin. Would you please communicate this bad news to President Carr.

I certainly remember you very well and the trip with Mack and Brixner among the Navaho. I have pictures of that trip I still like to take out and look at. We went this summer to Monument Valley and that part of the country, with my wife and boy. It has, as you will not be surprised, changed to some extent. But still, the situation of the Navaho seems to be about the same, although, they do have cars and refrigerators and the toys of the children are made of metal and there are fewer horses.

Thank you very much for your congratulations, it was good to hear from you.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO ARNOLD O. BECKMAN, DECEMBER 6, 1965

Arnold O. Beckman, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, drafted a resolution offering sincere congratulations and commendations to Feynman, “with the knowledge that he will continue in the forefront of theoretical physics as a productive member of the faculty for many years to come.”

Mr. Arnold O. Beckman

Chairman of the Board of Trustees

California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, California

Dear Mr. Beckman:

Could you convey to the Board of Trustees my appreciation of their resolution of congratulations. I was flattered by their kind, but exaggerated evaluations of my past services to Caltech but shall try, in the future, to disappoint them as little as possible.

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO ALBERT RUDDOCK, NOVEMBER 23, 1965

After watching Feynman on television, Mr. Ruddock wrote, “My wife and I think if science should ever pall on you that you have a future in broadcasting.”

Mr. A. B. Ruddock

Pasadena, California

Dear Mr. Ruddock:

Thank you very much for your kind note of congratulations. It is good to know that I can fall back on TV broadcasting if the Board of Trustees ever begin to find me out.

I am sorry that I am unable to accede to your desire that I do not answer your note, as the machinery that I have set up for answering congratulatory letters does not permit that degree of flexibility.We suffer from the computer age.

Sincerely yours

Richard P. Feynman

MAX RAFFERTY TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, NOVEMBER 22, 1965

Dear Dr. Feynman:

The State Board of Education at its meeting in Los Angeles on November 12, 1965, adopted the following resolution:

WHEREAS the California State Board of Education on March 14, 1963, appointed Professor Richard P. Feynman of the California Institute of Technology to the State Curriculum Commission,

WHEREAS Professor Feynman served for more than a year on this Commission during which time he took the leading role in the selection of mathematics textbooks for California school children,

WHEREAS Professor Feynman has been awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics,

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT this Board congratulates Professor Feynman on the greatness of his achievement and calls the attention of the people of California to the service performed for California children by one who in the midst of creative work gave freely of his time to help ensure the understanding of future citizens and the readiness of some one some time to again break ground.

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO MAX RAFFERTY, NOVEMBER 29, 1965

Dear Dr. Rafferty:

Please convey to the State Board of Education, my gratitude and appreciation for their resolution of congratulations. I have always felt uncomfortably unhappy about the fact that I felt that I must sever my connection with them just at the time when the science books were coming up for evaluation. I feel it is a bit ironic to be cited for service performed for California children for one year, by a group of men who serve these same children so regularly and so well over so much longer period of time.

I am sorry that I cannot be there to thank you each personally for your good wishes. For in a short time, when I did help the Board, I got to know and like each one of you individually, and have missed seeing you again.

I was surprised, happy and honored to read the resolution. Thank you again.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

JON A. JOHNSEN TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 21, 1965

Dear Prof. Feynman,

Even though I failed your beautiful physics course last year, I named my cat after you. I now find that my cat not only was given me by Urey’s son, but is also named after Feynman (Her name is Richard P.)

Thank you for giving my little Siamese such distinction.

Congratulations!

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO JON A. JOHNSEN, DECEMBER 14, 1965

Petaluma, California

Dear Mr. Johnsen:

Thank you very much for your letter of congratulations.

Some measure fame by just a Nobel Prize but I have had a cat named after me! Thank you for such a distinguished and subtle honor.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO MADAN MOHAN PANT, NOVEMBER 24, 1965

Mr. Pant had recently read The Feynman Lectures on Physics (Volume III) and commented on how much he enjoyed Feynman’s direct approach. He started to think of Feynman as his “pen teacher.” He said he danced with joy when he saw Feynman’s name in the papers as a Nobel Laureate and wrote to congratulate him.

He was also concerned about the first lines of the epilogue in Volume III, in which Feynman said he was going to quit teaching elementary physics, and wanted to know what Feynman was presently working on.

Mr. Madan Mohan Pant

Allahabad, India

Dear “Pen student”:

Thank you for your very kind letter of congratulations. It is a pleasure to hear that as far away as India there are some students who are inspired by some things that I might have done. I appreciate very much your interest in my work. At the moment I am not working very well. Ideas do not come so easily any more. So I suppose that it will be young men like you who will solve the problems, but I am working on the problem of understanding the strongly interacting particles, i.e., protons, neutrons and mesons. I think that we have almost enough information now from experiment that a very clever man would be able to guess the laws which relate these particles.

May I thank you again for your very kind and flattering letter. I am taking the liberty of sending you a short biography and a picture which I have signed. I wish you the greatest success in your studies and in your life.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO P. PAELINCK, NOVEMBER 24, 1965

Prof. Dr. P. Paelinck

Secretariat de la Reine

Dear Professor Paelinck:

Thank you very much for your kind note of congratulation. I remember very well our meeting at the Solvay Congress, and especially my most pleasant day in your home, meeting your family.

Perhaps, there has been enough time passed now to tell you an amusing story, without embarrassing you. After I got back to the United States, I expressed to my wife the pleasure I had in meeting you and talking with you and your family, and we resolved to send you and the children some books. So we purchased a number of books, most of them for the children, about cats and other childish things, and sent them to you as Secretary of the Queen. After some time we received a note saying that the Queen appreciated very much the books that we sent her. She must have thought that I was some kind of a nut to send her a book containing cat stories for children, but I couldn’t figure out a way to straighten it, so I did nothing.

I hope very much to meet you again some day.

Sincerely yours,

Richard P. Feynman

ROGER SPERRY TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, DATE UNKNOWN

A Caltech colleague, Professor Roger W. Sperry, would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1981 for his work on the human brain.

I’ve been waiting for the congratulatory stream to taper off a bit to tell you that we’re all tremendously pleased for you over here—(and especially that we hope you may now be motivated to devote full time to psychobiology!?)

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO ROGER SPERRY, NOVEMBER 30, 1965

I have at last gotten around to answering your note of congratulations. Please be advised that I have no intention of donating full time to psycho-biology. Now that I have won the prize, I expect to relax and enjoy life and not do science anymore. I will however, be available to give opinions on administrative matters in all fields of science and humanities, and how the freshman can make dates.

Richard P. Feynman

BOB WILLIAMS TO RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, OCTOBER 21, 1965

Today’s news is gratifying indeed.While there is no dearth of Feynman Appreciators (the list, if I am not wrong, is headed by R.P.F. himself) I nevertheless have always felt that I had some inside information—that this guy is Really on the Track. Glad to see that the rest of the world has caught up.

Congratulations—I wait with interest to see what the next twenty years will bring.

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO BOB WILLIAMS, NOVEMBER 29, 1965

It was good to hear from you and get your note of congratulations.You guessed right about who heads the list of Feynman Appreciators, but I must say it is pleasant to know that I can look down the list from time to time, and see that I am not the only one there.

All is going well here and hope all is well with you. Again, thank you for your kind note.

Richard P. Feynman

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN TO KOICHI MANO, FEBRUARY 3, 1966

A former student, who was also once a student of Tomonaga’s, wrote to extend his congratulations. Feynman responded, asking Mr. Mano what he was now doing. The response: “studying the Coherence theory with some application to the propagation of electromagnetic waves through turbulent atmosphere. . . a humble and down-to-the-earth type of problem.”

I was very happy to hear from you, and that you have such a position in the Research Laboratories.

Unfortunately your letter made me unhappy for you seem to be truly sad. It seems that the influence of your teacher has been to give you a false idea of what are worthwhile problems.The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to. A problem is grand in science if it lies before us unsolved and we see some way for us to make a little headway into it. I would advise you to take even simpler, or as you say, humbler, problems until you find some you can really solve easily, no matter how trivial.You will get the pleasure of success, and of helping your fellow man, even if it is only to answer a question in the mind of a colleague less able than you.You must not take away from yourself these pleasures because you have some erroneous idea of what is worthwhile.

You met me at the peak of my career when I seemed to you to be concerned with problems close to the gods. But at the same time I had another Ph.D. student (Albert Hibbs) whose thesis was on how it is that the winds build up waves blowing over water in the sea. I accepted him as a student because he came to me with the problem he wanted to solve. With you I made a mistake, I gave you the problem instead of letting you find your own; and left you with a wrong idea of what is interesting or pleasant or important to work on (namely, those problems you see you may do something about). I am sorry, excuse me. I hope by this letter to help correct it a little.

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Receiving the Nobel Prize from King Gustaf VI Adolf.

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Dancing with Gweneth at the Nobel Ceremonies.

I have worked on innumerable problems that you would call humble, but which I enjoyed and felt very good about because I sometimes could partially succeed. For example, experiments on the coefficient of friction on highly polished surfaces, to try to learn something about how friction worked (failure). Or, how elastic properties of crystals depend on the forces between the atoms in them, or how to make electroplated metal stick to plastic objects (like radio knobs). Or, how neutrons diffuse out of Uranium. Or, the reflection of electromagnetic waves from films coating glass. The development of shock waves in explosions. The design of a neutron counter.Why some elements capture electrons from L-orbits, but not from K-orbits. General theory of how to fold paper to make a certain kind of child’s toy (called flexagons).The energy levels in the light nuclei.The theory of turbulence (I have spent several years on it without success). Plus all the “grander” problems of quantum theory.

No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.

You say you are a nameless man.You are not to your wife and to your child.You will not long remain so to your immediate colleagues if you can answer their simple questions when they come into your office.You are not nameless to me. Do not remain nameless to yourself—it is too sad a way to be. Know your place in the world and evaluate yourself fairly, not in terms of the naïve ideals of your own youth, nor in terms of what you erroneously imagine your teacher’s ideals are.

Best of luck and happiness.

Richard P. Feynman