Shoolery, Judith L.

PERSONAL:

Married. Education: Kalamazoo College, graduated, 1957.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Half Moon Bay, CA.

CAREER:

Former science teacher; Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, book editor, 1979-1990.

WRITINGS:

(With Edward Teller) Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics, Perseus (Cambridge, MA), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS:

Judith L. Shoolery is a former science teacher who became a writer and editor. She collaborated with the late physicist Edward Teller to write Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics. The book recounts Teller's controversial career and life with a focus on the connection between science and politics, especially in relation to Teller's work on nuclear weapons with J. Robert Oppenheimer and others. The book includes Teller's views about many modern-day scientific advances, as well as a thirty-page appendix of transcripts outlining why Teller testified against Oppenheimer in a 1954 congressional hearing. "Curiosity will impel even his harshest critics into these memoirs," wrote Bryce Christensen in Booklist. Richard Rhodes noted in the New York Times Book Review: "Edward Teller has published other memoirs, but none has been so comprehensive as this presumably final statement." Although reviewers observed that much of Teller's views about science, politics, and his role in nuclear arms development appear egocentric, many critics also commented that Teller and Shoolery provide an honest and heartfelt look at Teller's youth and early career. A Kirkus Reviews contributor, for example, stated that the "narrative has many fine moments," adding that the book's authors write "affectingly of his youth in a Hungary, and later Germany, in which anti-Semitism was on the rise." In Commentary, Dan Seligman called the book "a terrific read," adding: "Its up-close portraits of the scientific luminaries who created nuclear weapons ring true."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 2001, Bryce Christensen, review of Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics, p. 364.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January-February, 2002, Mary Palevsky, review of Memoirs, p. 64.

Choice, April, 2002, N. Sadanand, review of Memoirs, p. 1443.

Commentary, November, 2001, Dan Seligman, review of Memoirs, p. 69.

Isis, June, 2003, Zuoyue Wang, review of Memoirs, p. 419.

Journal of Military History, April, 2002, Frank Settle, review of Memoirs, p. 635.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2001, review of Memoirs, p. 1278.

National Interest, spring, 2002, Adam Schulman, review of Memoirs, p. 130.

Nature, February 14, 2002, review of Memoirs, p. 735.

New York Times Book Review, November 25, 2001, Richard Rhodes, review of Memoirs, p. 15.

Times Literary Supplement, June 28, 2002, Brian Pippard, review of Memoirs, p. 28.

Wall Street Journal, October 30, 2001, Gabriel Schoenfeld, review of Memoirs, p. A21.

Washington Post, January 6, 2002, review of Memoirs, p. T06.

Wilson Quarterly, winter, 2002, Kai Bird, review of Memoirs, p. 109.

ONLINE

Christian Science Monitor Online,http://www.csmonitor.com/ (November 8, 2001), Robert C. Cowen, review of Memoirs.

JewishPress.com,http://www.thejewishpress.com/ (July 24, 2002), Michael Skakun, review of Memoirs.

Physics Today Online,http://www.aip.org/ (September 20, 2004), Hans A. Bethe, review of Memoirs.

Texas Observer Online,http://www.texasobserver.org/ (July 5, 2002), Anna Mayo, review of Memoirs.

USA Today Online,http://www.usatoday.com/ (January 11, 2002), Susan Page, "Teller Has No Apologies for His Cold War Role," interview with Judith L. Shoolery.