Marie Curie and Her Daughters

May 14, 2012
Science writer Emling (The Fossil Hunter) reveals a hidden side of the life of two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, co-discoverer of radioactivity and the first to use it as an experimental treatment for cancer. Her plainly told tale relates Curie’s struggles to balance her passion for discovery and arduous work as a scientist after her husband and collaborator Pierre’s death with the equally challenging task of raising two daughters. Drawing on newly available letters between Marie and her daughters, and extensive interviews with Marie’s granddaughter, Hélène Langevin-Joliot, Emling shows Marie as a loving if often absent mother who encouraged her daughters to pursue their own ideas and passions. Her older daughter, Irene, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1935 for her work with her husband, Frédéric, in developing synthetic radioactivity; Marie’s younger daughter, Eve, had a flourishing career as an international journalist and humanitarian who in later life worked with UNICEF. In this admiring family tale, Emling also reveals for the first time the key role American journalist Missy Meloney played in first bringing Marie Curie on her first trip to America, where she was received by adoring crowds, and then helping spearhead campaigns to raise much needed money to support Marie’s work. Photos. Agent: Agnes Birnbaum, Bleecker Street Associates.

June 15, 2012
An intimate portrait of the professional and private lives of legendary scientist Marie Curie and her daughters, Irene and Eve. Journalist Emling (The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World, 2009, etc.) opens with Marie receiving her second Nobel Prize a few years after the death of husband, Pierre, with whom she shared her first Nobel. While many Curie biographies pay scant attention to this last quarter-century of her life, Emling explores the later years of "the woman, mother, and friend behind the pioneering scientist," bolstered by the Curie family's personal letters, given to the author by Curie's granddaughter, Helene Langevin-Joliot. Emling describes Curie's life trying to balance the demands of her scientific research with the needs of her two daughters. At the time of her second Nobel, Curie's career was nearly derailed when news emerged of an affair between her and a married former student, physicist Paul Langevin. Although the scandal died down eventually, Curie would remain wary of journalists for the rest of her life, save one: American magazine editor and socialite Marie "Missy" Meloney, who befriended Curie and brought her to America as part of a campaign to raise funds for Curie's Radium Institute. Emling explores in full the scientific career of Curie's daughter Irene; working together, Irene and her husband followed in her parents' footsteps, sharing a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935--an honor Marie did not live to see, having died the previous year. Unfortunately, Eve, the daughter who opted for a career as a musician and journalist, receives scant attention; Emling relegates the details of her life to a single chapter, which feels obligatory and tacked on. A slightly uneven but uniquely human look at a brilliant scientific family.

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September 1, 2012

Freelance writer Emling (The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World) tells the story of science icon Marie Sklodowska Curie, a name familiar to most readers from elementary school days. The only person to have received Nobel prizes in two different sciences, Curie remains a hero to many. Emling writes here of Curie's later years and of her relationships with her daughters, topics not previously as well documented as the flashier (not to mention more radioactive) aspects of her life and scientific research. Curie's trips to the United States and her relationship with magazine editor and socialite Missy Meloney, who started a fund to buy radium for Curie, are covered here in both personal and professional terms. Emling presents a Curie defined not only by her scientific activities but also by her personality and by her relationships with family and friends after she gained international recognition. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in the history of Western science, scientific biographies, and women in science, as well as those who regard Marie Curie as a hero.--Eric D. Albright, Tufts Univ. Lib., MA

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