Radioactivité

Paris: Hermann & Cie, 1935. First edition. Very Good +. Publisher's brown card wrappers titled in red and black. Two parts in one, continuously paginated, as issued. 563 pp. Complete with the frontisportraits of Marie and Pierre Curie (with tissue guard) and fourteen numbered plates, twelve of which are double-sided. Front cover separating a bit at foot of spine. Small contemporary bookseller's ink stamp to edge of cover. Slight foxing to edges of closed text block. With the small pencil ownership signature of French scientist and journalist Marcel Boll (1886 - 1971), dated 1947, to corner of front flyleaf. Clean and fresh throughout, a Very Good (truncated) + copy.

First edition, first printing of the final work by Maria Sk odowska-Curie (1837 - 1934), edited from her manuscripts by Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot, her daughter and son-in-law (who themselves won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935). An educational rather than academic work, "The first section of the book deals with the background topics – ionized gases, electrons, and x-rays – that led to the discovery of radioactivity and the bulk of the text is a comprehensive review of radioactivity, radioactive transformations, and the chemistry and physics of radioactive materials" (Grolier, p. 52).

"Curie gave the phenomenon of radioactivity its name and made pioneering use of it in the discovery of previously unknown elements. Her research initiated the field of radiochemistry, and she actively encouraged the industrialization of the science of radioactivity for medical purposes" (Grolier, p. 48). In 1903, Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics (jointly with Pierre Curie, her husband, and Henri Becquerel), becoming the first woman to win the prize; upon her second win, of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, she became the first person to win the prize twice.

Hermann & Cie also published an edition in two volumes (maintaining the continuous pagination). No priority has been established.

Grolier, Extraordinary Women, #38. Very Good +. (Inventory #: 7018)