FERMI, E.
Frontispiece in each volume plus 17 plates. Red cloth, a bit faded, gilt spine; text is clean and bright. First edition of the papers from one of the most important physicists of all time. Volume I contains many of Fermi's most important works up to his emigration from Italy to America in 1938. Included is his Nobel acceptance speech entitled "Artificial radioactivity produces by neutron bombardment." Upon accepting the 1938 Nobel Prize for his "demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons," Fermi set sail for New York and never returned to Italy again. Volume II covers his work after settling in America. Included are the published results of his research into nuclear energy at the University of Chicago and from his time at Los Alamos as a consultant to the Atomic Energy Commission. Following detonation of the atomic bomb in Japan, Fermi gave a lecture in 1946 ("Atomic Energy for power"), found here, about the more peaceful uses of atomic energy in an attempt to counteract the negative implications of nuclear power. This set also contains a wonderful biographical sketch of Fermi, introductions to some of the papers by members of the editorial staff, and a chronology of the author's life. The editors have carefully chosen the papers that are most complete and have the greatest amount of detail, given that Fermi was known to publish the same paper more than once and often in multiple languages. Fermi (1901-1954) excelled in both theoretical and experimental physics. He worked with quantum statistics, spin particles, Raman effect, produced the theory of radioactive beta-decay, and discovered 40 new radioactive isotopes. Fermi's group obtained the first controlled self-sustaining nuclear reaction. His work in the fields of atomic, nuclear, and particle physics, as well as his contributions to cosmic rays and relativity, was invaluable and helped lay the foundation for the next generation of physicists.
BELL, Julia; FISHER, R.A.; PENROSE, L.S.
With 61 plates (1 folding), 14 photographs, and numerous text illustrations. Last volume contains the contents and index, other sections include lengthy bibliographies. Original printed wrappers, small chips lower edges of spine, but generally a very good set. First edition in the original parts of a work by a noteworthy geneticist, published by the leading genetic research laboratory of the twentieth-century. The six sections form Part IV of the Treasury of Human Inheritance series. The author treats Huntington's chorea, types of muscular atrophy and dystrophy, hereditary ataxia, and dystrophia myotonica. It includes numerous detailed plates of genetic pedigrees and several photographs. Julia Bell (1879-1979), an English geneticist, was best known for her 1943 discovery, along with J. Purdon Martin, of a single-gene cause of autism known as Martin-Bell syndrome. She was a member of the Medical Research Council at the Galton Laboratory at University College, London, the first institute in the world to study human genetics as a science. The Treasury of Human Inheritance was published by the department from 1909 to 1958 and edited by acclaimed professors such as Ronald Aylmer Fisher (1890-1962), a distinguished researcher in the field of eugenics who focused on identifying human blood groups, and Karl Pearson (1857-1936), the founder of twentieth-century statistics.
HOMBERCH, Heinrick Eckert van
227 leaves, unpaginated; lacks 5 leaves (e2, h1, ee2, ee7, and ee8). Gothic type (48), monumental xylographic "h" at the beginning of the text with floral and geometric decoration (59 x 60 mm), capitals stroked in red, x leaves with contemporary penwork illumination in red and blue ink, heightened in gold, 2-line opening initials at the beginning of each chapter in blue ink with red penwork. Modern black morocco. Bookplates of William Ridley Richardson and the Constantines.
GARDNER, John
Red cloth with illustration, title in silver on spine, unclipped dust jacket preserved in mylar, first page coming loose. A lovely copy from the epic Sattler collection. First edition, as stated. Illustrations throughout by John Napper. "The central plot concerns the quest of a noble but somewhat befuddled old police chief to get hold of and, more important, understand a strange magician called the âSunlight Man.' . The two mad idealists hunt each other until each drives his enemy into a bedrock humanness, stripped of illusion, full of grace," (dust jacket). John Champlin Gardner Jr. (1933-1982) was an American author known for his novel Grendel, a retelling of Beowulf told from the monster's point of view. He was also an essayist, literary critic, and university professor.
SCHEUCHZER, J. J.
Titles printed in red and black with engraved or woodcut vignette, half-titles (except in vols 3 and 6, as usual), frontispiece, 2 portraits, engraved headpiece at start of each volume, woodcut tailpieces, 758 engraved plates numbered 1-750 (37-38 on one plate, 2 plates numbered 99 & 113 & 217 & 223 & 240 & 463 & 470, 3 plates numbered 446; 5 double-page), the rainbow plate partly colored. Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt in compartments, each with two labels in red and citron morocco. Head or foot of a few volumes partially chipped, edges and corners rubbed. Sacttered foxing, mainly in the text. Traces of crudely removed bookplates on paste-down of all volumes, replaced in volume 1 and 8 with another bookplate (see provenance below).
