About the Book

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

In 1962, Maurice Wilkins, Francis Crick, and James Watson received the Nobel Prize, but it was Rosalind Franklin's data and photographs of DNA that led to their discovery.

Brenda Maddox tells a powerful story of a remarkably single-minded, forthright, and tempestuous young woman who, at the age of fifteen, decided she was going to be a scientist, but who was airbrushed out of the greatest scientific discovery of the twentieth century.

Critical Praise

“Maddox does justice to her subject as only the best biographers can.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Lively, absorbing and even handed … What emerges is the complex portrait of a passionate, flawed, courageous women.” — Washington Post Book World

“Brenda Maddox has done a great service to science and history.” — San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

“Thoughtful and engaging.” — Chicago Tribune

“A sensitive, sympathetic look at a women whose life was greater than the sum if its parts.” — New York Times Book Review

“An excellent biography … Maddox’s account of Franklin’s last years and premature death is moving and poignant.” — Women's Review of Books

“In this sympathetic biography, Maddox …illuminates her subject as a gifted scientist and a complex woman.” — Publishers Weekly

“Able, balanced and well researched.” — Science

“Maddox does an excellent job of revisiting Franklin’s scientific contributions while revealing her complicated personality.” — Library Journal

“A finely crafted biography.” — Booklist

“A gripping yet nuanced account … a magnificent biography.” — The Independent

“A joy to read.” — Sunday Telegraph

“A meticulous biography…[Rosalind Franklin] was the unacknowledged heroine of DNA, the Sylvia Plath of molecular biology.” — The Economist

“A vivid three-dimensional portrait of a sciencetist and human being … a moving biography.” — Daily Telegraph (London)

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Product Details

• ISBN: 9780060985080
• ISBN 10: 0060985089
• Imprint: Harper Perennial
• On Sale: 09/30/2003
• Trimsize: 5.310 in (w) x 8.000 in (h) x 0.940 in (d)
• Pages: 416
• List Price: $16.99
• BISAC1 : SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Genetics & Genomics
• BISAC2 : SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Molecular Biology
• BISAC3 : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women