play 5, 1972

Dear Dr. Nirenberg:

We have pleasant memories of the article 'you were kind
enough to write for us in 1963, and we shduld now like
to make'another proposal.

We here at .S&qtific American have always,been somewhtit
frustrated by the. fact that the articles we publish do
no't have more of a life bejrond.their initialcrea`tion.
It is true that'large numbers of reprints are distributed,
but we feel that even more is needed. 'It has lately
seemed to,us that a logical exfension.of each of the
major articles we publish would be a small illustrated
book of gerhaps 50,000 words (roughly 100 pages),

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Tz--

Such ti book could be written at the level of a Scientific
&er.ican.article;  It could of course take .adva%%
h  fact that some of the illustrations htid.alreathy been
Gpared for the magazine.  Other illustrations- could of
course be added.

The book would be published by our partners, W.H. Freeman
and Company of San Francisco..  One of the editors at
Scientific American, however; would work with the author
on the production of the book and its illustrations.   Our
colleagues at the Freeman company estimate that a book of
this kind would have a minimum first edition of 5,000
cloth-bound copies and 7,600 paper-bounfl copies..  These
editions would probabsy be priced respectively at $6 and
83; The.usual royalty arrangements would obtain.

.Would you consider writing such a`book that might simply
be titled "The Genetic'Codett?  If so,, one of us would


Dr. Marshall 'id. Nirenberg    -2 -        May 5, 1972

welcome an opportunity to call on you and discuss the mat-
ter further.  It would be a privilege for Scientific
American and the Freeman company to present a more extended
account-of this area in which your own work has played such
a significant part.
your convenience.   I look forward to hearing from you at

Cordially,

DF:ap

Dennis Flanagan
Editor

Dr. Marshall \?. Nirenberg
Laboratory of Biomedical Genetics
National Heart Institute
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, Maryland   20014