A personal note from LarryWhen Ben Bederson approached me about a year ago and asked if I would like tohave a collection of my articles published as a book, I was nonplused. I felt that such a collection was for the likes of Wigner and Pauli, and one level lower, not for the likes of me. I was told that graduate students and postdocs were putting their publications on the web, because it might help in getting a job. I am not looking for a job, but I do believe that summaries of papers, which Ben suggested be included, can be very helpful. I half-convinced myself that it would not be an ego trip, and agreed. The other half felt that it was an ego trip.After all, I have long believed that Eugene O'Neill was closer to the truth than Sigmund Freud, that tying to oneself may be less ``heroic'' than trying to understand oneself, but serves one better.)
Ben told me that he would do the organizational work. (His experience as Editor of the Physical Review certainly helped, but my guess is that he worked harder than he had expected.) He also said that various friends, former postdocs, and graduate students could write the brief commentaries on the papers in the different areas in which I had published, and that I would not have to lift a finger. I knew that that couldn't be quite right, but I did not appreciate how not quite right it was.There is a limit to what one can ask others to do, and there were areas in which my co-workers were no longer in physics. (My first papers were published just over 50 years ago.) Further, there were areas in which I had worked alone. In any event, I have written sketches on a number of topics. To minimize my effort, I have taken the unconscionable liberty of, for the most part, supplying no references, giving only the number of the publication in my bibliography. Anyone interested in reading the unexpurgated version can get most of my articles with a simple click, and, surprising to one of my vintage, can get the papers I referred to with an additional click. Ben was aided in the preparation of the click-click possibilities by S. Liu.
I can't begin to thank the nine who contributed summaries for their time and effort, especially since all are very active in research. I would also like to express my deepest thanks to those friends who contributed remarks about me; some of the remarks brought back long-forgotten but once again precious memories. Finally, I come to Ben, whom I have known for some fifty years. I don't know what possessed him to make the considerable effort, but I do know that I am deeply honored, and very pleased, but hardly surprised, to know that the friendship runs that deep.
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