Marie Curie and Her Daughters: The Private Lives of Science's First Family

by Shelley Emling

Overview

Published to widespread acclaim, in Marie Curie and Her Daughters, science writer Shelley Emling shows that far from a shy introvert toiling away in her laboratory, the famed scientist and two-time Nobel prize winner was nothing short of an iconoclast.

Emling draws on personal letters released by Curie's only granddaughter to show how Marie influenced her daughters yet let them blaze their own paths: Irene followed her mother's footsteps into science and was instrumental in the discovery of nuclear fission; Eve traveled the world as a foreign correspondent and then moved on to humanitarian missions. Emling also shows how Curie, following World War I, turned to America for help. Few people know about Curie's close friendship with American journalist Missy Meloney, who arranged speaking tours across the country for Marie, Eve, and Irene. Months on the road, charming audiences both large and small, endeared the Curies to American women and established a lifelong relationship with the United States that formed one of the strongest connections of Marie's life.

Factually rich, personal, and original, this is an engrossing story about the most famous woman in science that rips the cover off the myth and reveals the real person, friend, and mother behind it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137278364
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/10/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	991,797
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Shelley Emling has written for the The New York Times, USA Today, Fortune, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, The Times (London), The Huffington Post, FoxNews.com, Beliefnet.com, The Christian Science Monitor, and the International Herald Tribune. She launched one of the first blogs for the International Herald Tribune, called Raising the Roof. She is the author of the highly acclaimed The Fossil Hunter and lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Prologue America: A Fresh Point of Departure for the World's Greatest Scientist xiii

Chapter 1 An Absolutely Miserable Year 1

Chapter 2 Moving On 15

Chapter 3 Meeting Missy 31

Chapter 4 Finally, America 45

Chapter 5 The White House 59

Chapter 6 New and Improved 73

Chapter 7 Another Dynamic Duo 87

Chapter 8 Turning to America-Again 101

Chapter 9 Into the Spotlight 117

Chapter 10 The End of a Quest 133

Chapter 11 Tributes and New Causes 147

Chapter 12 All about Eve 161

Chapter 13 The Ravages of Another World War 175

Chapter 14 Rough Waters 189

Chapter 15 The Legacy 203

Selected Bibliography 213

Index 215

Editorial Reviews

Emling offers an intimate look at Curie's relationship with her children…[and a] fascinating, moving story… [with an] inspiring message conveyed throughout.” —Carmela Ciuraru, The Boston Globe

“The story of the second act of the genius's life, as a widowed mother of two.” —Harpers

“Emling delivers a compulsively readable biography of Curie and her formidable daughters.” —Ms. magazine

“The often harrowing tale covers the great physicist's struggle with xenophobia and sexism, her mental and physical breakdowns, and the campaign by American journalist Missy Meloney to supply her with radium. Most compellingly, it bares Curie's relationships with her daughters, the Nobel prize-winning chemist Irène and writer Eve.” —Nature

“Emling reveals a hidden side of the life of two-time Nobel Prize winner.” —Publishers Weekly

“An intimate portrait of the professional and private lives of legendary scientist Marie Curie and her daughters, Irène and Eve… A uniquely human look at a brilliant scientific family.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A new twist...bringing the story into the 21st century...Recommended.” —Choice

“Shelley Emling makes an invaluable contribution to history by documenting the afteraffects of radiation and fame on this remarkable pioneer of the atom, a woman who sacrificed herself for the sake of deadly knowledge.” —Tom Zoellner, author of Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World

“Publicly glum and famously determined, Marie Curie struggled against the extraordinary prejudices of her time, and became an icon. In this engagingly delightful look behind the heavy skirts of the era, Shelley Emling reveals Marie's and her two disparate daughters' idiosyncratic family life, and especially the significant role that their visits to the United States played in their personal development.” —Peter Atkins, author of Galileo's Finger

“Marie Curie and Her Daughters breathes life into an icon of science. Emling uses private letters, the unpublished papers of her daughter, Irene Curie, and an interview with her granddaughter Helene Langevin-Joliot to take the reader into Curie's role as the mother of two daughters, as a traveler to America and beyond, and as a woman in a man's world. If young women are looking for a real-life role model beside today's celebrities, this story will fill that niche.” —Elizabeth Norman, author of We Band of Angels

“A book that should inspire all young women to go out and make things happen.” —Frank Close, author of The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe

“Shelley Emling's dazzling chronicle of the three Curies and their world famous accomplishments is surpassed only by her account of how each stretched her era's concept of the possibilities for women. A tour de force!” —Megan McKinney, author of The Magnificent Medills

“Ms. Emling's riveting new biography reveals in page-turning prose the life-balance struggles of a true genius. It's a tip of the hat to the private Marie, the single working mother, whose many accomplishments include her two amazing daughters.” —Lisa Verge Higgins, New York Journal of Books

“Shelley Emling's excellent joint biography of Marie, her daughters (and a granddaughter, too) is an exhilarating story that couples scientific discovery and motherhood. A book that should propel young women into science for the sheer fun of it, it's also a rich tale of war and peace, family commitment, friendship and medical progress.” —Adele Glimm, author of Gene Hunter and Rachel Carson

“A must read for every woman and every female teenager. In accessible prose, Emling enlightens the world about this enigmatic scientist, and, with the help of personal letters shared by Curie's granddaughter, Emling has woven a story of a woman full of grace and of the daughters who loved her without fail. I loved this book.” —Mary H. Manhein, author of The Bone Lady and Trail of Bones

From the Publisher

A book that should inspire all young women to go out and make things happen.

author of The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field T Frank Close

Science writer Emling (The Fossil Hunter) reveals a hidden side of the life of two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, co-discoverer of radioactivity and the first to use it as an experimental treatment for cancer. Her plainly told tale relates Curie’s struggles to balance her passion for discovery and arduous work as a scientist after her husband and collaborator Pierre’s death with the equally challenging task of raising two daughters. Drawing on newly available letters between Marie and her daughters, and extensive interviews with Marie’s granddaughter, Hélène Langevin-Joliot, Emling shows Marie as a loving if often absent mother who encouraged her daughters to pursue their own ideas and passions. Her older daughter, Irene, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1935 for her work with her husband, Frédéric, in developing synthetic radioactivity; Marie’s younger daughter, Eve, had a flourishing career as an international journalist and humanitarian who in later life worked with UNICEF. In this admiring family tale, Emling also reveals for the first time the key role American journalist Missy Meloney played in first bringing Marie Curie on her first trip to America, where she was received by adoring crowds, and then helping spearhead campaigns to raise much needed money to support Marie’s work. Photos. Agent: Agnes Birnbaum, Bleecker Street Associates. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Freelance writer Emling (The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World) tells the story of science icon Marie Sklodowska Curie, a name familiar to most readers from elementary school days. The only person to have received Nobel prizes in two different sciences, Curie remains a hero to many. Emling writes here of Curie's later years and of her relationships with her daughters, topics not previously as well documented as the flashier (not to mention more radioactive) aspects of her life and scientific research. Curie's trips to the United States and her relationship with magazine editor and socialite Missy Meloney, who started a fund to buy radium for Curie, are covered here in both personal and professional terms. Emling presents a Curie defined not only by her scientific activities but also by her personality and by her relationships with family and friends after she gained international recognition. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in the history of Western science, scientific biographies, and women in science, as well as those who regard Marie Curie as a hero.—Eric D. Albright, Tufts Univ. Lib., MA

Library Journal

An intimate portrait of the professional and private lives of legendary scientist Marie Curie and her daughters, Irène and Eve. Journalist Emling (The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World, 2009, etc.) opens with Marie receiving her second Nobel Prize a few years after the death of husband, Pierre, with whom she shared her first Nobel. While many Curie biographies pay scant attention to this last quarter-century of her life, Emling explores the later years of "the woman, mother, and friend behind the pioneering scientist," bolstered by the Curie family's personal letters, given to the author by Curie's granddaughter, Hélène Langevin-Joliot. Emling describes Curie's life trying to balance the demands of her scientific research with the needs of her two daughters. At the time of her second Nobel, Curie's career was nearly derailed when news emerged of an affair between her and a married former student, physicist Paul Langevin. Although the scandal died down eventually, Curie would remain wary of journalists for the rest of her life, save one: American magazine editor and socialite Marie "Missy" Meloney, who befriended Curie and brought her to America as part of a campaign to raise funds for Curie's Radium Institute. Emling explores in full the scientific career of Curie's daughter Irène; working together, Irène and her husband followed in her parents' footsteps, sharing a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935--an honor Marie did not live to see, having died the previous year. Unfortunately, Eve, the daughter who opted for a career as a musician and journalist, receives scant attention; Emling relegates the details of her life to a single chapter, which feels obligatory and tacked on. A slightly uneven but uniquely human look at a brilliant scientific family.

Kirkus Reviews