The Joshua Lederberg Papers

Title:

"What I would like to Be" (Joshua Lederberg's writing at age 7)

Description:

This "essay" by Joshua Lederberg, written at age 7 while attending P. S. 46 in New York City, gives an early indication of his interest in the sciences. The essay, with some misspellings, reads: "I would like to be a scientisttist of mathemmatics like Einstein. I would study science and discover a few theories in science." The "Solomon" shown in Lederberg's name at the top is actually a youthful affectation and not part of his proper name.

Item is handwritten. Item is a photocopy.

Number of Image Pages:

1 (56,779 Bytes)

Date:

1932-06-20 (June 20, 1932)

Creator:

Lederberg, Joshua

Rights:

This item is in the public domain. It may be used without permission.

Subject:

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH):: Career Choice

Exhibit Category:

Biographical Information

Relation:

Lederberg Grouping: No Epoch

Box Number: 1

Folder Number: 49

Unique Identifier:

BBAAAA

Accession Number:

Document Type:

Essays

Language:

English

Format:

application/pdf

image/tif

Physical Condition:

Good

Series: Biography, 1904-1999

SubSeries: Biographical & Autobiographical Materials

SubSubSeries: Autobiographical Files

Folder: "What I Would Like to Be", 1932

Metadata Last Modified Date:

2007-09-24

Annotation by Joshua Lederberg:

KW: Einstein; 1932; **;

   ...  Joshua Solomon Lederberg

"What I would like to be.

I would like to be a scientistist 
of mathemmatics like Einstein.  I would
study science and discover a few theories
in science.  "


My earliest known composition  (conserved by my mother).

"scientistist" may have been a premonition of my work about science,
as well as in it;

This also documents my voluntary choice of Solomon as a middle name,
which I used sporadically perhaps through 1940's.  It is still
 reflected in my email handle "jsl", which I came up with on demand for
> 2 character code.;  Solomon has connotations of "sage, wisdom",
which I am sure were my aspirations, eveidently even by age 7/;


jl  7/5/98  , 7/25/98, 9/22/98,  7/20/02

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