Francis Crick, 20 June 1953

CRICK, Francis (1916-2004). Autograph letter signed (“Francis” and in return address “F.H.C. Crick”) to Leonard Hamilton, Cambridge, 20 June 1953.

One and a half pages, recto and verso, 243 x 204mm (light stains, a few faint areas to ink, creasing). On blue air mail sheet.

“As to my co- (and senior) author, he is a young American zoologist, just 25. You need have no fear about our respective reputations—we are both of us the sort of person people remember!”

Lengthy letter from Crick to Hamilton, about half of which is concerned with Crick’s upcoming move to the United States and the rest giving an account of James Watson, including a thrilling reference to how Watson and Crick flipped a coin to decide whose name should go first in the landmark article “Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid” of 30 May 1953—the article in which the mechanics for gene replication and heredity are first laid out. In part:

“Dear Leonard, I really must apologize for not writing before; I can only plead pressure of work, due to all this DNA business coming on top of my trying to write a thesis on proteins. We got immigration visas some weeks ago, and have a passage on the Mauritania, leaving here 22^nd August … We plan to stay for 1 year. We may come back here—we may go to California for 6 months or a year first, but that is undecided.

As to my co- (and senior) author, he is a young American zoologist, just 25. You need have no fear about our respective reputations—we are both of us the sort of person people remember! In point of fact we agreed that his name should go first on the first Nature letter (as I was working on haemoglobin at the time the work was done!), and my name first on the fuller paper, which is yet to come. We tossed for the second Nature letter—which he won. The Cold Spring Harbour paper he was asked to give, so we put him first. You must meet him some time. He really is very bright.”