Born in the spring of 1904 in New York City, J. Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and the director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 1925 and a doctorate in physics from from the University of Göttingen in Germany in 1927. After spending a period of time conducting research at the University of California, Berkeley, he became a full professor in 1936.
His work was most broadly known in theoretical physics, and he made various contributions to the field including the Born-Oppenheimer approximation for molecular wave functions, which he developed while studying under Max Born. In 1942, Oppenheimer was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, a World War II research project that studied, developed, and tested the first nuclear weapons. He was assigned the position of director over the project’s Los Alamos laboratory, and in 1945, he was present for the first test of the atomic bomb (code named Trinity). The research, construction, and testing of the bomb led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. This is, to date, the only use of nuclear weapons in combat.
First edition of the full text of Henry D. Smyth’s official report on the development of the atomic bomb by the U.S. Government boldly signed by top Manhattan Project scientists on the front free endpaper, Enrico Fermi, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Samuel K. Allison, George B. Kistiakowsky, Kenneth T. Bainbridge, and William S. “Deak” Parsons.
Written as a “report to the nation” by Henry D. Smyth, chairman of the Princeton physics department, at the direction of Major General Groves, in charge of the Atomic Bomb Project, Atomic Energy for Military Purposes begins with a brief survey of the advances in nuclear physics made between 1896 and 1940, and then proceeds to tell the incredible story of the scientific and engineering teamwork that culminated in the manufacturing of the atomic bomb. This was the first official account of the development of nuclear weapons and the scientific research and discoveries necessary to produce them. It became a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into over 40 languages.
First edition of Atomic Energy for Military Purposes signed by J. Robert Oppenheimer, Norris E. Bradbury, the Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Henry D. Smyth, the author.
Though widely recognized today as the definitive history of the Manhattan Project, some considered its publication dangerous. United States Atomic Energy Commission member Lewis Strauss called the publication of the Smyth Report (as it was widely known) a “serious breach of security”; in 1952, President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower would say the Smyth Report had given away too much information.
Beyond its value as a written account of the project, Atomic Energy for Military Purposes is a fascinating piece of Manhattan Project history itself, composed by a fellow scientist and progressing at the same rate as the progress of the atomic bomb it was documenting.
Several other books written throughout the 20th century documented the remarkable life of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
First edition of The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer inscribed by the author on the half-title page.
Denise Royal’s The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the first published Oppenheimer biographies and provided a realistic, fascinating view into his life.
First edition, presentation copy of The Oppenheimer Case inscribed by the author.
Another such biography is The Oppenheimer Case by Philip M. Stern, published only two years after Oppenheimer’s death.
First edition of this Pulitzer Prize-winning work inscribed by Martin Sherwin on the half-title page.
One of the most interesting and successful of Oppenheimer’s biographies, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin was written over a period of 25 years and won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. The book chronicles Oppenheimer’s rise to fame as well as his downfall due to his political complications during the McCarthy era. It was perhaps the first Oppenheimer biography to delve into every angle of his life, including his early life, his academic career, his scientific discoveries, and his complicated and often tumultuous personal life.
It was this biography that served as inspiration for Christopher Nolan’s 2023 biographical film Oppenheimer starring Cillian Murphy in the title role. The film was an enormous success, becoming the highest-grossing World War II-related film in history and earning $80.5 million its opening weekend. The film rekindled an interest in Oppenheimer as a historical figure, and “American Prometheus” topped the bestseller lists for the first time in
Browse our full collection of works related to the life and work of J. Robert Oppenheimer here.
