Curie, Marie. "Les Theories Modernes Relatives a l'electricite et a la matiere", in Revue Scientifique (Revue Rose), 5th series, volume VI, #29, 17 November 1906, pp 606-612, and in the next issue, #21, 24 November 1906, pp 650-654. Offered in the full volume for the second half of 1906. Bound in a very stout red buckram with reinforced hinges. The volume contains 26 weekly issues, each title page having the former owner's round rubber stamp. The page are browned having been printed on an inferior stock of paper. Overall, a very sturdy, attractive volume, in nice condition. $200
- This was the first lecture Curie delivered as the first woman to have a teaching position at the Sorbonne. She took the chair in May 1906, just a month after her husband Pierre was accidentally and tragically killed in a freak accident, being crushed by a street carriage. All of this came only a year after the Curies received their (delayed) Nobel Prizes. In any event, as is noted in the subtitle of this work, this paper is the famous inaugural lecture given by Curie on November 5. Evidently, though, the lecture was not to the taste of the heavily attended affair, which had been opened to the general public, as it was a bit too "scientific".
- "Mme. Curie compelled recognition from her first lecture (5 November 1906), despite her timidity, the emotion she was concealing, her weak voice, and her monotone delivery. She made no introductory remarks, took no notice of the sightseers mingling with the students, and began her lecture with the last sentence that Pierre had spoken in that very place. In every demonstration experiment she watched the result with as much interest as if she did not already know it..."--Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol 3, p 501.
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