Dorothy Hodgkin : A Life [Hardcover]

Georgina Ferry (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0879695900 | ISBN-13: 978-0879695903 | Publication Date: September 2000 | Edition: 1

The first biography of the Nobel-prize winning chemist and peace activist, this book is a winning portrait of an accomplished woman who combined an ambitious career with family responsibilities, often at great cost.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Hodgkin was wary of would-be biographers, referring to the efforts that she knew of as 'attempts on my life'..." -- American Scientist

"…a delight to read (and) very well documented." -- Times Higher Educational Supplement

About the Author

The first biography of the Nobel-prize winning chemist and peace activist, this book is a winning portrait of an accomplished woman who combined an ambitious career with family responsibilities, often at great cost.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 423 pages
• Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; 1 edition (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879695900
• ISBN-13: 978-0879695903
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,248,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A woman ahead of her time., August 9, 2003

By 

E. Jensen (Grand Rapids, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dorothy Hodgkin : A Life (Hardcover)

This amazing biography of crystallographer is even more interesting because it is the author's first book. Despite being a non-scientist, Ferry does a superb job of exploring the life of her subject. It is a joy to read, treating with equal respect Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin's personal and scientific life. The central role of crystallography (with excursions into biology, chemistry, and physics) is not minimized, but it would be easily understandable to the non-scientific reader. Besides being a woman scientist in Great Britain at a time when women were not even eligible for college-level degrees at some schools, Dorothy was a successful wife and mother, raising several children almost alone while her husband worked in faraway places. But rather than concentrate on the difficulties, Dorothy put all her efforts into pursuing science, and thus she became fantastically successful, eventually winning the Nobel Prize for her work on the structures of Vitamin B12 and penicillin. Everyone in her field respected her, no one suggested her proper place was anywhere else, and so she avoided many of the pitfalls women in science often face. As long as she lived, Dorothy worked for what she believed in, whether it was solving the structures of complicated bio-active molecules, peace, or international communication. She built friendships all over the world, and used her fame and personality to help people. This book will make you a Dorothy Hodgkin fan, which is a tribute to both the subject's worthiness and the author's skill.