Beschreibung:

FEYNMAN, RICHARD P.A correspondence between Richard and Lucille Feynman:
—Feynman, Richard P. Autograph letter signed ("RPF."), to Lucille Feynman ("Mom"). 8 pages in ink on 2 folded sheets (7 x 12 in.). Creases where folded. Slight discoloration to final page.—Feynman, Lucille. Autograph letter signed ("Mom."), to Richard Feynman. 5 pages in ink on 3 sheets (5 x 7 3/4 in.). Ink. Creases where folded. [WITH]: cover addressed to Mr[s]. M.A. Feynman, postmarked May 29, 1942, Princeton, N.J.Condition reportTo request a condition report for this lot, please email science@sothebys.com.Catalogue noteA REMARKABLE LETTER FROM RICHARD FEYNMAN'S MOTHER OBJECTING TO HIS MARRYING ARLINE, WITH RICHARD'S POINT-BY-POINT REBUTTAL
While Richard Feynman was a graduate student at Princeton – an institution that viewed marriage as a fatal distraction to serious academic pursuits – he and Arline Greenbaum became officially engaged. Around this time, Arline began to suffer recurrent symptoms of a mystery illness: fevers, pain and large lumps which would appear and then disappear. After the initial fear of cancer, Arline was diagnosed with lymphatic tuberculosis in 1941, possibly contracted from unpasteurized milk. Doctors did not expect her to last more than two years.
In this letter, Feynman's mother, Lucille, tells Richard that getting married to Arline will not only put Richard's life in danger, but will cause a terrible (and ultimately unnecessary, given the terminal nature of her illness) personal, professional, and financial burden for Richard, a person with such a bright future. She also tells Richard that marrying Arline would be a selfish act, as it would mean he could not dedicate himself fully to the war effort.
As Lucille says in her letter:
"Richard, I am a patriot. I would like to see my son ready to help his country in this the greatest crisis it has ever faced. With the burden of this marriage (+ that is all it will be: a burden to you) you are not free to dedicate yourself to your country's service wherever she needs you. God has given you a great gift. You do not have to take up arms to help us, use your fine scientific mind. Keep it unhampered."
Richard's response to his mother is a point-by-point rebuttal to each of her objections. He tells her that he has spoken to Professor Smyth, then the Chair of the Princeton Physics Department, and that he didn't see any problem with hiring someone who's wife was sick with TB (see lot 19 for more on this conversation). He tells her definitively that he wants to get married, and that he is "anxious for the responsibilities + the uncertainties of taking care of the girl I love." Nevertheless, despite his love for Arline, he assures his mother that he wants to "contribute as much [to] physics as I can," and says that, "This is, in my mind, of even greater importance than my love for Arline." Feynman ends the letter in a defiant manner:
"Since I feel I can carry on my main job, + still enjoy the luxury of taking care of someone I love — I intend to be married shortly. Does that explain anything?"
Feynman finished his Ph.D. in 1942, and despite their parents’ protest (Feynman’s mother remarks in her letter that such a union should be ‘illegal’), the couple married in a civil ceremony on Staten Island on June 29, 1942. With no friends or family present, the young couple embarked upon their ill-fated marriage, which could not even begin with a proper kiss for fear of Feynman falling ill himself. Directly after the ceremony, he took her to Deborah Hospital in New Jersey and visited her there every weekend.
On June 16, 1945, Arline Feynman would succumb to her illness while residing at Presbyterian Sanatorium in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Of course, this was less than two months before the bombing of Hiroshima and the denouement of World War II, which her husband had played a crucial role in realizing.
RELATED LOTS:Lot 19