"I'm an explorer, OK? I like to find out!" -- One of the towering
figures of twentieth-century science, Richard Feynman possessed a
curiosity that was the stuff of legend. Even before he won the Nobel
Prize in 1965, his unorthodox and spellbinding lectures on physics
secured his reputation amongst students and seekers around the world. It
was his outsized love for life, however, that earned him the status of
an American cultural icon-here was an extraordinary intellect devoted to
the proposition that the thrill of discovery was matched only by the joy
of communicating it to others. In this career-spanning collection of
letters, many published here for the first time, we are able to see this
side of Feynman like never before. Beginning with a short note home in
his first days as a graduate student, and ending with a letter to a
stranger seeking his advice decades later, Perfectly Reasonable
Deviations from the Beaten Track covers a dazzling array of topics and
themes, scientific developments and personal histories. With missives to
and from scientific luminaries, as well as letters to and from fans,
family, students, crackpots, as well as everyday people eager for
Feynman's wisdom and counsel, the result is a wonderful de facto guide
to life, and eloquent testimony to the human quest for knowledge at all
levels. Feynman once mused that "people are entertained' enormously by
being allowed to understand a little bit of something they never
understood before." As edited and annotated by his daughter, Michelle,
these letters not only allow us to better grasp the how and why of
Feynman's enduring appeal, but also to see the virtues of an inquiring
eye in spectacular fashion. Whether discussing the Manhattan Project or
developments in quantum physics, the Challenger investigation or
grade-school textbooks, the love of his wife or the best way to approach
a problem, his dedication to clarity, grace, humor, and optimism is
everywhere evident..
