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

WATSON, James D.

Item Number: 4015

New York: Atheneum, 1968.

First edition, sixth printing, published four months after the first edition. Octavo, original blue cloth. Signed by Watson on the title page. Near fine in a very good dust jacket that some wear to the crown of the spine.

"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.