February 3, 1931

Prof. W. A. Noyes

University of Illinois

Urbana, Ill.

Dear Professor Noyes:

I have been planning to devote this year to writing a book on "The Nature of the Chemical Bond: an Introduction to Structural Chemistry." I have been well pleased with the services of McGraw-Hill, however, and have promised to submit the manuscript to them, so that I feel that [it] is not possible for me to sign a contract with the American Chemical Society. Possibly it will seem desirable to publish this as an ACS monograph; but the decision must be made later.

Yours sincerely,

LP:M

February 9, 1931

Professor John C. Slater,

Department of Physics,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Cambridge, Mass.

Dear John:

Your invitation to come to M.I.T. has attracted me especially because of the opportunity it would provide to work with you; for I have come to realize that there is no theoretical physicist whose work interests me more than yours. During the last two weeks I have tried to decide whether or not the chance of my ultimately coming to M.I.T. is great enough to justify extensive discussion and perhaps a trip East; and now I am afraid that it is not, for the following reasons.

My position here at the Institute and the Institute itself have been improving rapidly. The Institute is a very pleasant place to work, and Pasadena a pleasant place to live. Last summer I was surprised with a significant increase in salary, and my full professorship is effective next year. I teach only a graduate course in some phase of theoretical chemistry in which I am interested. My research is well supported - I have two full-time assistants, one for routing X-ray work; the other, Dr. Sturdivant, is now constructing a very sensitive and accurate ionization spectrometer. In addition Dr. Podolsky is working with me on molecular structure. I could hardly ask for better support of my researches.

If I were to come to M.I.T., I should desire an appointment in physics or in physics and chemistry. And yet I am really not very much interested in physics, but rather in what may be called structural chemistry, and so I prefer being in a chemistry department. Here there are several men in our chemistry department whose interests touch on mine - Tolman, Badger, Dickinson, and Yost especially. Then I enjoy my annual trip to Berkeley very much too. It is true, however, that at M.I.T. sould [sic] probably benefit more from contact with the physicists, especially you, than I do here.

Slater-2 2-9-31

If I were at all dissatisfied here, your tempting invitation would bring me East. But with conditions as they are here now I feel that, with deep personal regret at missing the opportunity of working with you on the structural problems which interests both, I must decide to remain in Pasadena.

My wife, who also regrets not being able to come to Cambridge and at the same time stay in Pasadena, joins me in sending best wishes to you and Mrs. Slater.

Very sincerely yours,

LP:M

February 11, 1931

Professor Arthur B. Lamb,

Laboratory of Chemistry,

Harvard College,

Cambridge, Mass.

Dear Professor Lamb:

I wish to submit the accompanying paper entitled "The Nature of the Chemical bond" for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. I realize that the paper is longer than those usually published in the Journal. This is not because it is in any sense a review; except for short introductions describing previous work, only original work is discussed.

The paper could be shortened a little by omitting reference to previous work and by condensing the explanatory discussions of new results; but I feel that this would render it more difficult for chemists to understand what has been done.

The paper seems to me to be primarily of chemical interest, and I hope that it may be published in the Journal of our American Chemical Society; but if prompt publication might be prevented through time-consuming consideration by referees, I must ask you to return the manuscript for I shall then feel obliged to publish it in the Physical Review or in a European journal where quick publication can be secured.

Very truly yours,

LP:M

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

February 26, 1931.

Dr. Linus Pauling,

California Institute of Technology,

Pasadena, California.

Your manuscript entitled "The Nature of the Chemical Bond" - received on February 17 - has now been examined by a Referee familiar with the field and his report is favorable to its publication, although he states that a really definitive conclusion on his part as to the merits of the manuscript would require a study of several weeks.

Ordinarily, I should feel that the speculative nature of the subject matter of this manuscript, as well as its considerable length, would make it imperative that the more careful and time-consuming examination spoken of by the Referee should be given it. However, at the moment, we are in the somewhat unusual condition of being caught up with our supply of material, and it appears that your manuscript can be included in the April issue without displacing other deserving manuscripts. Under these circumstances, I am inclined to accept your manuscript for publication and shall hope to be able to include it in that number of the Journal.

Yours truly,

Arthur B. Lamb.