Details
SMYTH, Henry de Wolf (b. 1898). A General Account of the Development of Methods of using Atomic Energy of Military Purposes under the Auspices of the United States Goverment, 1940-1945, [Washington, D.C.: printed at the Pentagon], 1945.
4° (265 x 200mm.), 102 leaves, diagrams in text (duplicate leaves of title and preface), single sheets stapled into textured cream wrappers as issued, the following lithographed on the lower left of front cover "Released for Publication on ______" (covers very lightly dust-soiled). Provenance: Signed on title by William Bloom and Robert. S. Stone, upper right hand corner of front wrapper signed in pencil by W. Bloom.
FIRST EDITION. The first description of the technical development of the nuclear bomb, published on 12 August 1945, only six days after Hiroshima. 'These weapons', Smyth later wrote, 'were not only spectacular in their military effort but were only one of the possible uses of the energy released by nuclear fission. In the larger sense the whole great effort had been to develop the technology of using nuclear energy'. Up to this point the research and development had been undertaken in conditions of the utmost secrecy and the report was also prepared in secret. However, the British and American goverments decided that the widest dissemination of this 'remarkably full and candid account' (PMM) was in the public interest, and this first edition was distributed to journalists for radio use on 11 August and for press use the next day - 'Hardly adequate as a report of five years' work by thousands of people, this book was still unusual as a press release'. This first edition is described as a 'lithoprint' and was printed in the Adjutant General's office in the Pentagon from a typescript (it is a 'true edition', the text retyped from the duplicated drafts which were circulated for corrections and comments). A printed edition of 60,000 copies was quickly prepared and published in mid-September and immediatly became a bestseller. Norman 1962; Princeton University Library Chronicle 37, p. 206; PMM 422e.
4° (265 x 200mm.), 102 leaves, diagrams in text (duplicate leaves of title and preface), single sheets stapled into textured cream wrappers as issued, the following lithographed on the lower left of front cover "Released for Publication on ______" (covers very lightly dust-soiled). Provenance: Signed on title by William Bloom and Robert. S. Stone, upper right hand corner of front wrapper signed in pencil by W. Bloom.
FIRST EDITION. The first description of the technical development of the nuclear bomb, published on 12 August 1945, only six days after Hiroshima. 'These weapons', Smyth later wrote, 'were not only spectacular in their military effort but were only one of the possible uses of the energy released by nuclear fission. In the larger sense the whole great effort had been to develop the technology of using nuclear energy'. Up to this point the research and development had been undertaken in conditions of the utmost secrecy and the report was also prepared in secret. However, the British and American goverments decided that the widest dissemination of this 'remarkably full and candid account' (PMM) was in the public interest, and this first edition was distributed to journalists for radio use on 11 August and for press use the next day - 'Hardly adequate as a report of five years' work by thousands of people, this book was still unusual as a press release'. This first edition is described as a 'lithoprint' and was printed in the Adjutant General's office in the Pentagon from a typescript (it is a 'true edition', the text retyped from the duplicated drafts which were circulated for corrections and comments). A printed edition of 60,000 copies was quickly prepared and published in mid-September and immediatly became a bestseller. Norman 1962; Princeton University Library Chronicle 37, p. 206; PMM 422e.
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