Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling

Linus Pauling (1901-1994) -- chemist, peace activist, vitamin C advocate, and the only person in history to win two unshared Nobel Prizes -- leaped the boundaries of physics, chemistry, biology, politics, and medicine to earn a reputation as one of America's greatest scientists and humanitarians. In a balanced, captivating biography, science writer Hager skillfully leads the reader through Pauling's pioneering work in fields ranging from quantum theory to crystallography to immunology. Drawing on scores of interviews with Pauling, his family and his colleagues, and on the two-time Nobel Prize-winner's papers, Hager limns a fiercely competitive, emotionally constricted man, irreverent, audacious, sometimes self-righteous and bullying -- a more complex figure than his public persona of maverick idealist. Drawing on a trove of newly declassified government documents, Hager tells the full story of the FBI's harassment and intimidation of Pauling for his leftist politics. The book ends with a detailed overview of Pauling's controversial late-life research on Vitamin C.

"A thorough and thoroughly satisfying biography of a genius" -- The New Yorker

"Magisterial.... a delicate balancing act of empathy and critical analysis" -- The Times Literary Supplement.

"Remarkable in both bringing to light Pauling's personality and evaluating his scientific work." -- Detroit Free Press (4-star review)

"Monumental and authoritative" -- Nature

"The definitive biography" -- The New Scientist