Abstract
In 1965 the Nobel Foundation honored Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger, and Richard Feynman for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics and the consequences for the physics of elementary particles. However, only Richard Feynman was perceived as a genius by the public. In his autobiographies he managed to connect his behavior, which contradicted several social and scientific norms, with the American myth of the ‘practical man’.
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Notes
- 1.
FBI-File of Richard Feynman, received under the Freedom of Information Act, Memorandum [ca. 1946, not dated].
- 2.
Letter from George W. Corner to Richard Feynman, April 19, 1968, Richard Phillips Feynman Papers (RPFP), California Institute of Technology, Institute Archives, Mail Code 015A–74 Pasadena, CA 91125, USA, Folder 1.1. and Feynman’s refusal July 1, 1968.
- 3.
Letter from Richard Feynman to Detlev W. Bronk, August 10, 1961, RFPF, Folder 1.13.
- 4.
Letter from Robert F. Christy to Richard Feynman, September 12, 1949, RPFP, Folder 1.20.
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Forstner, C. (2020). Biography and Autobiography in the Making of a Genius: Richard P. Feynman. In: Forstner, C., Walker, M. (eds) Biographies in the History of Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48509-2_9
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