Richard Feynman Signed & Heavily Annotated Biochemistry Book, Ex-Sotheby's, Ex-Richard P. Feynman Family

A book personally owned by the future Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988), and signed and inscribed by him as "R.P. Feynman / Physics Depart. Calif. Instit of Tech." on the front loose endpaper. The textbook by Joseph S. Fruton and Sofia Simmonds, "Second Edition, General Biochemistry" (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1958) is profusely annotated by Feynman, with over 215 words in his hand in the form of abbreviations, hypothetical questions, flow charts, chemical formulae, and margin notes. The original retail price of $15 is pencil-inscribed on the front loose endpaper. Expected wear including minor rubbing to the spine ends of the publisher's green cloth binding. Else near fine. 9.25" x 6" x 1.25." 8vo. 1077pp. Ex-Sotheby's, Ex-Richard P. Feynman Family.

Feynman has inscribed or drawn on 25+ pages of this textbook. See below for a breakdown of the types of his markings.

Chapter 3, "Amino Acids as Structural Units of Proteins"

p. 53 - In the right margin of the page, Feynman has pencil-inscribed the chemical formula of the glycyl radical H2NCHOOH, and abbreviated glycine as "gly"

p. 54 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed abbreviations for alanine and valine at the center of the page

p. 55 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed abbreviations for leucine, isoleucine, and serine at the center of the page

p. 57 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed abbreviations for threonine and cysteine at the center of the page

p. 58 - A partial erasure of Feynman's abbreviation of cysteine as "cys" near the bottom of the page

p. 61 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed the abbreviation for methionine near the bottom of the page

p. 62 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed abbreviations for asparagine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and glutamine at the center of the page, and made one underline

p. 64 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed abbreviations for lysine and arginine at the center of the page

p. 66 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed an abbreviation for histidine near the bottom of the page

p. 68 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed abbreviations for phenylalanine and tyrosine at the top of the page

p. 70 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed abbreviations for tryptophan and proline at the center of the page

p. 79 - Feynman has recorded abbreviations for over 20 different proteins

Chapter 5, "Structure of Proteins"

p. 136 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed abbreviations for glutamyl, cysteinyl, and glycine at the center of the page

p. 140 - At the top of the page, Feynman has pencil-inscribed a long chain of proteins relating to beef vasopressin

p. 141 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed "hypertensive" at the top of the page

p. 146 - In addition to circling three proteins and drawing a line, Feynman has pencil-inscribed "depends on the species" near the top of the page. Next to the footnote, Feynman has pencil-inscribed "Wonderful." Protein abbreviations and Feynman's code (one of his own devising?) appear at the bottom of the page.

Chapter 7, "Nucleoproteins"

p. 186 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed "RNA" in the left margin

Chapter 8, "General Chemistry of Enzymes"

p. 220 - Feynman has written along the right margin in pencil, "why has protein splitting enzyme not eat itself?"

Chapter 17, "Chemistry of the Carbohydrates"

p. 404 - Feynman has underlined the following sugars along the bottom of the page: glucose, mannose, and galactose

p. 405 - At top, Feynman has pencil-inscribed numbers around three illustrations of the sugar glucopyranose

Chapter 19, "Fermentation and Glycolysis"

p. 468 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed "aldolase" near the center of the page

p. 476 - Feynman has drawn arrows on Figure 4, "Pathway of anaerobic breakdown of glucose to ethanol and carbon dioxide in yeast," and has marked "START" and END" on the diagram

p. 479 - Feynman has drawn an exclamation point in the margin besides a statement concerning glyoxalase II

p. 490 - Feynman has inscribed "IN" and "OUT" on Figure 6, "Pathway of anaerobic glycolysis in muscle" and written, "see Fig 4 page 476" near the bottom of the page

Chapter 20, "Aerobic Breakdown of Carbohydrates"

p. 507 - Feynman has pencil-inscribed the words "pyruvic," "oxaloacetic," "citric," and "acetyl phosphate" around Figure 1

p. 508 - Feynman has made copious marks in pencil to Figure 2, "The citric acid cycle," including an arrow rotating clockwise, and the notation "CO2 OUT" in the left margin

Chapter 22, "Photosynthesis"

p. 547 - Feynman has made several notes in blue ink near the bottom of the page near Table 1, "Energy Values for Several Wave Lengths of Light"

p. 552 - Feynman has made copious marks in pencil to Figure 3, "Proposed mechanism of CO2 fixation in photosynthesis by means of the reductive pentose phosphate cycle" including the instructions "Follow arrows" or an alternate pathway highlighted by "or else"

Feynman served as a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology between 1950-1988. During his tenure at Caltech, Feynman explored such concepts as quantum gravity, weak decay, and diagramming subatomic particles. The intersection between Feynman's area of focus --theoretical physics--and this book's explanation of basic biochemistry is unknown, though the mechanics of the natural world are certainly informed by certain chemical and biological processes. It is also possible, however, that Feynman consulted this textbook when he was preparing a series of lectures hosted by the Hughes Aircraft Company between 1966-1971. During the Hughes series in 1969 and 1970, Feynman lectured on microbiology, organic chemistry, and biology.

Richard Feynman was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. His many contributions to the field of theoretical physics include research/discoveries in quantum computing, quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics, particle physics, nanotechnology, and the fluidity of elements based on temperature.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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