Dr. Linus Pauling, the first American to win two Nobel Prizes,
was born on February 28, 1901. I came to
better appreciate Pauling while researching my forthcoming book, Dinner in Camelot, about the evening at
the White House for Nobel Prize winners in 1962.
Although there was a galaxy of extraordinary scientists and
writers who attended the dinner that President and Mrs. Kennedy hosted for 175
guests—the largest of the Kennedy administration—arguably the most fascinating
guest was Linus Pauling.
Pauling, who has received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in
1954, attended the dinner with his wife, Ava Helen. Earlier on that day, Sunday, April 29, they
were picketing outside the White House, protesting Kennedy on a stalled nuclear
test ban. They changed their clothes at
the Willard Hotel and went on to the White House for what Linus called an
enjoyable evening.
The situation was even odder because Pauling had sent shrill
letters to the president complaining about his lack of leadership on nuclear testing. Recently he asked, “Are you going to give an
order that will cause you to go down in history as one of the most immoral men
of all time and one of the greatest enemies of the human race?”
Ava Helen, who actually was the one who spurred Linus toward
social activism, had written to Jacqueline Kennedy nine months earlier: “Your children, like all other children in
the world, are laying down in their bones, along with the calcium, Strontium
90.” She added, “I urge you to use your
influence to safeguard your children as well as all of the children of the
world by keeping the United States Government from resuming nuclear testing
under any circumstances.”
When the Paulings approached the Kennedys in the reception
line that evening, President Kennedy was courteous. He understood that alliances shifted and that
there was usually a distinction between politics and personal enmity. “Dr. Pauling, how do you do. You’ve been around the White House a couple
of days [Saturday and Sunday] already haven’t you,” he said. He continued, “Dr. Pauling, I hope that you
will continue to express your opinions.”
Linus Pauling, too, was able to compartmentalize his
feelings. He and Ava surprised the other
guests by leading an impromptu dancing session in the Cross Hall during a
transition in the evening’s festivities.
Pauling went on to win a second Nobel Prize, this one for peace, for the
very activism that he exhibited earlier in the day before dinner.
It was a great pleasure to interview Linus Pauling, Jr.,
about his parents and their contributions.
The elder Pauling was a quirky fellow who often could be self-centered
and totally self-assured. But he also
was a distinguished scientist and concerned citizen who left his mark on
society.
You can read more about the Paulings, the Kennedys, the
Oppenheimers, the Styrons, James Baldwin, Pearl Buck, Robert Frost, and many
others in Dinner in Camelot: The Night
that America’s Greatest Scientists, Writers, and Scholars Partied at the Kennedy
White House, available now for preorder and to be released by ForeEdge on
April 3.
The photo of Linus Pauling, dated 1954, when he won his
first Nobel Prize, from the Nobel Foundation [Public Domain], via Wikimedia
Commons.
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