How many biographies does it take to cap ture the mind and soul of a genius physi cist? In the case of J. Robert Oppenheimer, apparently a dozen, minimum.
So why did Martin Sherwin begin researching a biography of Oppenheimer 26 years ago, 12 years after the subject's death, when previous biographies of him already were causing bookshelves to sag?
Because he could not find a way to refrain, that is why. Sherwin believed that Oppenheimer -- father of the atomic bomb, strategic adviser to the U.S. foreign-policy establishment, yet dishonored after he was accused of supporting communism -- needed to be viewed clearly, as a major influence on American and international societies.
Sherwin began the task for Knopf in 1979. Traveling to New Mexico, Sherwin rode a horse from the Los Pinos Ranch across the Sangre de Cristo mountains to a cabin situated on 160 acres of mountainside. Oppenheimer purchased those 160 acres in 1933 as a place to relax. He sometimes rode his horse along the route followed by Sherwin, a conscientious biographer trying creative methods to understand his subject. Sherwin chose the cabin as his destination for another reason, too -- Oppenheimer's son Peter lived there during 1979, and the biographer hoped for an interview. Sherwin planned to complete the book by 1985. But the more he unearthed in archives and libraries, the more profoundly he realized that Oppenheimer's story cried to be related again, reaching new readers and filling in the gaps of previous biographies.
Swamped by the material and 20 years into the research, Sherwin asked journalist/biographer Kai Bird to help him finish. The choice was a good one. The writing here is clear and conversational.
"Like that rebellious Greek god Prometheus, who stole fire from Zeus and bestowed it upon humankind, Oppenheimer gave us atomic fire," they write. "But then, when he tried to control it, when he sought to make us aware of its terrible dangers, the powers-that-be, like Zeus, rose up in anger to punish him."
Much of this thick book will seem familiar to readers of previous Oppenheimer biographies: a New York City youth, born in 1904 to intellectual, secular Jewish parents; quantum physics studies in Germany during the 1920s; the University of California faculty during the 1930s; helping develop nuclear weapons during World War II; speaking out against nuclear mass death after the war ended; battling the faux patriot slanderers blind to Oppenheimer's true love of country; refuge at the Princeton University Institute for Advanced Studies until his cancerous death -- recall that cigarette always hanging from his lips? -- in 1967.
The original material comes primarily from Sherwin's decision to connect Oppenheimer's family life to his work. That makes sense. Oppenheimer's loyal, close relationship with his brother Frank, for example, carried unforeseen consequences. "A person's public behavior and his policy decisions, and in Oppenheimer's case perhaps even his science, are guided by the private experiences of a lifetime," the authors say. Amen to that.
I have read two others from the massive pile of Oppenheimer biographies. They both showed strengths but were not superb. I doubt any of the others could improve upon "American Prometheus."
Sherwin's 1975 book, "A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and Its Legacies," has stood the test of time. So have Bird's massive lives and times of U.S. citizen diplomats John McCloy and the Bundy brothers, McGeorge and William.
I predict that 25 years from now, "American Prometheus" still will be read -- unless it is surpassed by one or both of the other Oppenheimer biographies scheduled for publication later this year. If any statement can be labeled "definitive," it would be the statement that "definitive biographies" rarely are. |
