The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA.

WATSON, James D.; (Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins).

Item Number: 96790

New York: Atheneum, 1968.

First edition of Watson’s ground breaking work regarding the discovery of DNA for which the author, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962. Signed by all three laureates on the title page, James D. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins. Octavo, original blue cloth, with numerous diagrams and photographic illustrations. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Jeanyee Wong. Foreword by Sir Lawrence Bragg. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. We have never seen another example signed by all three contributors; exceptionally rare.

"Science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner imagined by outsiders," writes James Watson in The Double Helix, his account of his codiscovery (along with Francis Crick) of the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick won Nobel Prizes for their work, and their names are memorized by biology students around the world. But as in all of history, the real story behind the deceptively simple outcome was messy, intense, and sometimes truly hilarious. To preserve the "real" story for the world, James Watson attempted to record his first impressions as soon after the events of 1951-1953 as possible, with all their unpleasant realities and "spirit of adventure" intact.