Marie Curie: A Daughter's Bio

This post is a review of a biography of Marie Curie, written by her youngest daughter, Eve. Translated from the French by Vincent Shean, it won the American National Book Award for Non-Fiction in 1937, became a bestseller, and was first adapted into a movie in 1943 (later there were more films, the latest being Radioactive).

The biography is written by someone who not only knew Marie Curie well, but was a family member. The book reads true and intimately. Issues are considered in depth. Many letters are quoted, diary entries reproduced, and the foreword claims every conversation reported is genuine. It is one of the better biographies I have read.

The book may be divided into three parts:

1. Until Paris: This part describes Curie's birth in Russian-controlled Poland and her early childhood as the youngest of 5 children. Brilliant at school, reduced to giving lessons due to poverty (her father lost his money in a financial speculation), she served as a governess in the hinterland, a place that took several hours to reach by train and sleigh.

   Curie had patriotic and socialistic urges. The son of her employer wanted to marry her (and she him), but the father wouldn't let them (since she had no money, though clearly she was very accomplished). Eventually, Marie became attracted towards the university in Paris, which was free of Russian rule, and where her elder sister had gone for medical school.

   
   

2. Paris and Pierre: Finally, she went to live with her sister and her doctor husband (with visitors like Ignace Paderewski, then already a great pianist, and later to be prime minister of independent Poland) and attended the Sorbonne. Later, she moved out to 3 Rue Flatters, still there today, and other cheap tenements with no light, water or heating. Sometimes she would consume only bread, butter and tea for days on end. In the end, a friend got her a scholarship which allowed her to live better.

   
   

   A chance meeting occurred with the brilliant Pierre Curie (he had a masters degree at the age of 18), orchestrated by a Polish visitor, to whom had Marie had confessed her need for more lab space. She was excited by the work of Becquerel, who had gone looking for X-rays in Uranium (following Roentgen's discovery), but had found radioactivity instead (an unexpected discovery).

   
   

   Marie started looking for radioactivity in all kinds of materials, and in another great example of how scientific investigations can lead to unexpected discoveries, she discovered, along with Pierre, new elements - polonium (which she named after her native country) and radium.

   
   

   I learnt from the book that pure diamond is made much more phosphorescent by exposure to radium than are imitations - giving a way to tell fakes. Of course radium later found many applications in physics, chemistry, meteorology, geology and biology. The Curies never patented the element, which could have made them millionaires, if not more. For their discoveries, the Curies were awarded - thought they did not attend the ceremony due to ill health - the Nobel Prize in physics along with Becquerel.

   
   

   Subsequent fame came to them in unexpected forms - there were skits in the Montmartre theaters about their work; their daughter's conversations with the nurse were reported; their pet cat given publicity in the newspapers; endless demands came for tickets to their talks; letters arrived with sonnets on radium; there were requests for baptizing race horses with their names. I wonder how they would have fared today.

   
   

   Still, they were able to focus and carry on with their work. The Curies, in fact, gave little time to socialization. A few scientists nonetheless showed up in their apartment (e.g. Jean Perrin, Sagnac, Aime Cotton, Georges Urbain, Guoy), and the sculptor Rodin.

   
   

3. After Pierre: The death of Pierre at a relatively young age (46), from a traffic accident, and its revelation to Marie is treated in a dignified and moving manner; the book passes on to us the condolences of Lord Kelvin and quotes from the eulogy by Poincare.

   
   

   This stage of the book involves Marie's subsequent appointment and functioning as the first female professor in the history of the Sorbonne; her rearing of her two daughters as intellectuals (no ghosts or fear of thunder allowed!); the anchoring role of her father-in-law (who stayed with them after his son's death); the award of a second (!) Nobel prize to Marie, this time for chemistry.

   
   

   It also includes the first world war and her work on mobile and stationary radiological units that serviced millions. The end of the war, the independence of Poland, and her visits to the US, where she was received by Presidents Harding and Hoover, among other dignitaries, are described in detail. The book ends with Marie's death from pernicious anemia, induced by radium.

Summary

A great scientific biography. Written with feeling and knowledge about the subject, and yet detached at the appropriate places. The central character is towering yet vulnerable. I enjoyed the personal touches about Marie: how she made scientific notes on the progress of her daughters (when their teeth appeared, when they began to walk, when to pick themselves up after falling, etc.); the fact that she remembered a large amount of poetry in 5 languages; her mountain hikes with Einstein and his son.

The book only obliquely refers to the scandal accompanying Marie's affair with one of her husband's students, Paul Langevin, who was married (this happened just before the second Nobel prize was awarded to her). Perhaps that is for the better.

A video clip of the great scientist. And another.