1952

“Cottrell, Samaritan of Science” was published.

In 1952, “Cottrell: Samaritan of Science,” a biography of Frederick Gardner Cottrell written by Frank Cameron with a foreword by Ernest O. Lawrence, was published. Frank Cameron had previously written publicity materials for the Grace Lines and the Pacific American Steamship Association and had no scientific background, but the biography of Cottrell was intended not as a scientific treatise, but rather a popular biography.

After Cameron and Cottrell met and “hit it off,” Cameron was hired by Research Corporation to write Cottrell’s biography. Cameron spent the next two years meeting with Cottrell, interviewing a reported 150 people, and reading more than 10,000 letters and documents, as well as 40 years of Cottrell’s diary. The two men were working on the book when Cottrell died in 1948.

After the book’s publication by Doubleday, Hillier Krieghbaum, a professor in the journalism department of New York University and author of “Science and the Mass Media,” reviewed it for the “New York Times,” published in its March 30, 1952, edition. Krieghbaum noted: “Behind most monumental achievements are little known good samaritans, Johnny Appleseeds who quietly plant the seeds that materialize publicly, much later. Such a man was Frederick Gardner Cottrell, who helped to usher in the Atomic Age.”