The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA.

WATSON, James D.

Item Number: 2636

New York: Atheneum, 1968.

First edition, second printing, published one month after the first of the author’s ground breaking work regarding the discovery of DNA for which the author, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962. Octavo, original blue cloth. Signed by James D. Watson on the title page. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with a small chip to the rear panel.

"Science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner imagined by outsiders," writes James Watson in The Double Helix, his account of his codiscovery (along with Francis Crick) of the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick won Nobel Prizes for their work, and their names are memorized by biology students around the world. But as in all of history, the real story behind the deceptively simple outcome was messy, intense, and sometimes truly hilarious. To preserve the "real" story for the world, James Watson attempted to record his first impressions as soon after the events of 1951-1953 as possible, with all their unpleasant realities and "spirit of adventure" intact.