Feynman

Hi, I wanted to know if someone is working on Richard P. Feynman's legacy library?

Nope. Do you have a source for the collection?

Not really, I did a quick search yesterday on Google didn't find anything.

It seems CalTech has a lot of his papers in their archives. If anyone knows what happened to the collection, I imagine they would.

That is certainly true

The Feynman Papers can be viewed by scholars having a bona fide research purpose, by appointment, at the Caltech Archives, in Pasadena, California. The contents of the collection is listed (by folder), online:

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt5n39p6k0
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/data/13030/k0/kt5n39p6k0/files/kt5n39p6k0.pdf

Best regards,
Mike Gottlieb
Physics Department
California Institute of Technology

Hi Mike! It is always nice to see a professional on these groups.

Now we just have to find a bona fide reason to access the Caltech Archives :)

The section labeled books only has 9 titles.

Edited: (Sorry, this is benjclark, not Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

>8 ACDoyleLibrary:

Conan Doyle was a big believer in spiritualism, so it's only fitting his ghost would show up at some point. ;)

Any update, 10 years on?

Any new sources for the collection? Any bibliographies, or other interesting bits published with 10 years on? Did Feynman produce anything that could help, like annual reading lists, or such?

I found one more book, offered for sale here:
https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/feynman-richard-p-wentzel-gregor/einf...

>11 benjclark: I found some more of his personal library! This is actually where Bauman Rare Books bought that book from.

https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/news/nobel-prize-papers-and-personal-research-...

" New York-Sotheby’s is thrilled to announce that the Nobel Prize, papers and personal research library of the brilliant, inspiring, and much-beloved theoretical physicist Richard P. Feynman will headline our second annual History of Science & Technology auction in New York on 30 November 2018 ... The trove of manuscripts on offer spans the full length of Feynman’s career, from his early work on the Manhattan Project to his long tenure at Caltech, and addresses topics such as the Atom Bomb, Quantum Electrodynamics, Computing, Organic Chemistry, Nanotechnology, Mathematics and Physics. The archive also includes books from his personal research library — many annotated — as well as his tambourine. Individual and themed groups of manuscripts will be offered across a number of lots. ... "

The full auction catalog is here: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2018/history-of-science-technology-n09886.ht...

There were about 40 books (and an encyclopedia set) in that auction, but unfortunately not all of them were Feynman's. It looks like the Feynman books start at lot 66, and I count 18 actual books of his plus the encylopedias. If you include the 'autograph manuscripts' of Feynman's later-published books, that would get you several more books.

Plus you could add the 9 books from the Caltech list, and I also see a couple of bound theses and a published Conference Proceedings further down that list. There are also more handwritten manuscripts listed there if you want to get into those.

Surely he owned more books than these, but this seems like a good enough amount to be worth having a legacy library set up...?

Potentially also helpful, https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/07/books/the-scientist-is-gone-but-not-his-book-... mentions that Michelle Feynman and Carl Feynman have been overseeing their father's estate. Perhaps they still own more of his library or at least have a list of what they've previously sold. Michelle might be reachable through her recent book publisher, under For The Media at https://www.basicfeynman.com .

Definitely weird that there's not more out there on his books - SURELY he had more than those few!

If there are drabbles of books at Sotheby's in 2018, there may be larger lots of unsigned/unannotated books coming, or they went en bloc to a dealer. Do they have any more Science themed auctions coming up?

I agree that this is enough to start -- Could set up a wiki/ flashmob page to organize what you have so far?

I guess if folks want to, go ahead - I'm not sure it's enough to make it worth it, honestly, but I'd say if someone is keen to add them, feel free!

Just a quick note about books belonging to academic scientists: Usually they are offered to their colleagues and students on a first come basis. Then they are first offered to a departmental and then the university library. Home libraries are what would a dealer might be able to purchase.