Grand Obsession: Madame Curie and Her World

Doubleday, 1989 8vo (24 cm), X, 500 pp. Publisher's cloth and dust jacket (minor shelf-wear). "Marie Curie's life was a story of passion, ambition, and courageous dreams, and her work changed the world forever. The book is the story of this remarkable scientist and her family, winners of three Nobel prizes in two generations. Their extraordinary lives comprise a fascinating history of modern physics, from romantic Belle Époque Paris in the 1890s to the beginnings of the nuclear arms race half a century later. Wither her husband Pierre, Marie discovered radium and polonium, and their work with radiation revolutionized modern science. Their legacy of research and discovery was carried on by their daughter Irène and son-in-law Frédéric, whose bold experimentation, even during the Nazi occupation of Paris in World War II, heralded the dawn of the Atomic Age." (from the blurb)