Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

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(This document also appears as an appendix in all editions of the The Oppenheimer Alternative)

In creating his novel The Oppenheimer Alternative, author Robert J. Sawyer found three websites indispensable: the Atomic Heritage Foundation, Voices of the Manhattan Project, and Alex Wellerstein's Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog.

In addition, Robert J. Sawyer relied on the following books:

The Manhattan Project and the Atomic Age

Alperovitz, Gar. The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1995.

Baggott, Jim. The First War of Physics: The Secret History of the Atom Bomb, 1939-1949. Pegasus, New York, 2010.

Cimino, Al. The Manhattan Project. Arcturus, London, 2015.

Conant, Jennet. 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2005.

Coster-Mullen, John. Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man. Self-published, 2002.

Groves, Leslie R. Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project. Harper & Row, New York, 1962.

Hersey, John. Hiroshima. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1946.

Jones, Vincent C. Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb. Center of Military History United States Army, Washington DC, 1985.

Joseloff, Michael. Chasing Heisenberg: The Race for the Atom Bomb. Amazon Publishing, Seattle, 2018.

Jungk, Robert. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientist. Harcourt Brace, New York, 1958.

Kelly, Cynthia C. A Guide to the Manhattan Project in New Mexico. Atomic Heritage Foundation, Washington DC, 2012.

———. The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians. Black Dog, New York, 2007.

Lawrence, William L. Dawn Over Zero. Knopf, New York, 1946.

Mahaffey, James. Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power. Pegasus, New York, 2010.

Masters, Dexter, and Katharine Way, eds. One World or None: A Report to the Public on the Full Meaning of the Atomic Bomb. Federation of American Scientists, Washington DC, 1946.

Nelson, Craig. The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era. Scribner, New York, 2014.

Nichols, Major General K.D., U.S.A. (Ret.). The Road to Trinity: A Personal Account of How America's Nuclear Policies Were Made. William Morrow, New York, 1987.

Norris, Robert S. Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project's Indispensable Man. Steerforth Press, South Royalton VT, 2002.

O'Reilly, Bill, and Martin Dugard. Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II. Henry Holt, New York, 2016.

Powers, Thomas. Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb. Penguin, London, 1994.

Reed, Bruce Cameron. Atomic Bomb: The Story of the Manhattan Project. Morgan & Claypool, San Rafael CA, 2015.

———. The History and Science of the Manhattan Project. Springer, Berlin, 2014.

———. The Physics of the Manhattan Project, Third Edition. Springer, Berlin, 2015.

Rhodes, Richard. Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1995.

———. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1986.

Serber, Robert. The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How to Build an Atomic Bomb. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 1992.

Sullivan, Neil J. The Prometheus Bomb: The Manhattan Project and Government in the Dark. Potomac Books, Lincoln NE, 2016.

Teller, Edward, and Allen Brown. The Legacy of Hiroshima. Doubleday, New York, 1962.

Watson, Peter. Fallout: Conspiracy, Cover-Up, and the Deceitful Case for the Atom Bomb. Hachette, New York, 2018.

Wyden, Peter. Day One: Before Hiroshima and After. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1984.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Banco, Lindsey. The Meanings of J. Robert Oppenheimer. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City IA, 2016.

Bernstein, Jeremy. Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma. Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 2004.

Bird, Kai, and Martin J. Sherwin. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2005.

Carson, Cathryn, and David A. Hollinger. Reappraising Oppenheimer: Centennial Studies and Reflections. University of California, Berkeley, California, 2005.

Cassidy, David. J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century. Pi Press, Indianapolis IN, 2004.

Chevalier, Haakon. Oppenheimer: The Story of a Friendship. George Braziller, New York, 1965.

Day, MichaelA. The Hope and Vision of J. Robert Oppenheimer. World Scientific, Hackensack NJ, 2016.

Dyson, Freeman. Dreams of Earth and Sky. New York Review of Books, New York, 2015 (also contains essays about Richard Feynman and Wernher von Braun).

———. The Scientist as Rebel. New York Review of Books, New York, 2006.

Goodchild, Peter. J. Robert Oppenheimer: Shatterer of Worlds. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1981.

Hecht, David K. Storytelling and Science: Rewriting Oppenheimer in the Nuclear Age. University of Massachusetts Press, Boston, 2015.

Kelly, Cynthia C. Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project: Insights Into J. Robert Oppenheimer, "Father of the Atomic Bomb." World Scientific, Hackensack NJ, 2006.

Kunetka, James W. The General and the Genius. Regnery, Washington DC, 2015 [Leslie R. Groves, J. Robert Oppenheimer].

———. Oppenheimer: The Years of Risk. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ, 1982.

Mason, Richard. Oppenheimer's Choice: Reflections from Moral Philosophy. State University of New York Press, Albany, New York, 2006.

McMillan, Priscilla J. The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Modern Arms Race. Viking, New York, 2005.

Michelmore, Peter. The Swift Years: The Robert Oppenheimer Story. Dodd Mead, New York, 1969.

Monk, Ray. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center. Random House, New York, 2012.

Oppenheimer, J. Robert. Atom and Void: Essays on Science and Community. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 1989.

———. The Flying Trapeze: Three Crises for Physicists. Harper & Row, New York, 1969.

———. The Open Mind. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1955.

———. Science and the Common Understanding. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1953.

———. Uncommon Sense. Birkhauser, Boston, 1984.

Ottaviani, Jim, and Janine Johnston, Steve Lieber, Vince Locke, Bernie Mireault, and Jeff Parker. Fallout: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and the Political Science of the Atomic Bomb. G.T. Labs, Ann Arbor MI, 2001.

Pais, Abraham, with Robert P. Crease. J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life. Oxford University Press, New York, 2006.

Polenberg, Richard, ed. In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Security Clearance Hearing. Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY, 2002.

Royal, Denise. The Story of J. Robert Oppenheimer. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1969.

Schweber, Silvan S. Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 2008.

———. In the Shadow of the Bomb: Bethe, Oppenheimer and the Moral Responsibility of the Scientist. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 2000.

Smith, Alice Kimball, and Charles Weiner, eds. Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA, 1980.

Stern, Philip M., with Harold P. Green. The Oppenheimer Case: Security on Trial. Harper & Row, New York, 1969.

Thorpe, Charles. Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2006.

United States Atomic Energy Commission. In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Transcript of Hearing Before Personnel Security Board and Texts of Principal Documents and Letters. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1954.

Wolverton, Mark. A Life in Twilight: The Final Years of J. Robert Oppenheimer. St. Martin's Press, New York, 2008.

Wernher von Braun

Biddle, Wayne. Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher Von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race. W.W. Norton, New York, 2009.

Bower, Tom. The Paperclip Conspiracy: The Battle For the Spoils and Secrets of Nazi Germany. Michael Joseph, London, 1987.

Goudsmit, Samuel A. Alsos. Henry Schuman, New York, 1947.

Huzel, Dieter K. From Peenemünde to Canaveral. Englewood Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ, 1962.

Jacobsen, Annie. Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America. Little Brown, New York, 2014.

Longmate, Norman. Hitler's Rockets: The Story of the V-2s. Skyhorse, New York, 2009.

Neufeld, Michael J. Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2007.

von Braun, Wernher. The Mars Project. University of Illinois Press, Urbana IL, 1991.

von Braun, Wernher. Project Mars: A Technical Tale. Apogee, Burlington ON, 2006 [von Braun's novel, at last seeing print in English].

Other Historical Figures

Bodanis, David. Einstein's Greatest Mistake: A Biography. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2016.

Clark, Ronald W. Einstein: The Life and Times. World Publishing Company, New York, 1971.

Fermi, Laura. Atoms in the Family. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1954 [Enrico Fermi].

Feynman, Richard P. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman. Perseus Publishing, New York, 1999.

———. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" W.W. Norton, New York, 1985.

———. What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character. W.W. Norton, New York, 1988.

Gleick, James. Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. Vintage, New York, 1992.

Goodchild, Peter. Edward Teller: The Real Dr Strangelove. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2004.

Hargittai, Istvan. Judging Edward Teller: A Closer Look at One of the Most Influential Scientists of the Twentieth Century. Prometheus, New York, 2010.

———. The Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press, London, 2006 [Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, Theodore Von Karman, John von Neumann, Eugene Wigner].

Herken, Gregg. Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller. Henry Holt, New York, 2002.

Isaacson, Walter. Einstein: His Life and Universe. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2007.

Krauss, Lawrence M. Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science. W.W. Norton, New York, 2011.

Lanouette, William, with Bela Silard. Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, the Man Behind the Bomb. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1992.

Marton, Kati. The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World. Simon & Schuster, New York, 2006 [Leo Szilard, Edward Teller, Eugene Wigner, John von Neumann].

Orear, Jay, et. al. Enrico Fermi — The Master Scientist. The Internet-First University Press, Ithaca NY, 2004.

Pfau, Richard. No Sacrifice Too Great: The Life of Lewis L. Strauss. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville VA, 1984.

Rigden, John S. Rabi: Scientist and Citizen. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1987.

Rolls, Jem. The Inventor of All Things. One-man play about Leo Szilard performed at fringe-theater festivals worldwide since 2015.

Schwartz, David N. The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age. Basic Books, New York, 2017.

Segrè, Gino, and Bettina Hoerlin. The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age. Henry Holt, New York, 2016.

Smith, P.D. Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon. Penguin, London, 2007 [Edward Teller].

Strauss, Lewis L. Men and Decisions. Doubleday, Garden City NY, 1962 [Strauss's autobiography].

Streshinsky, Shirley, and Patricia Klaus. An Atomic Love Story: The Extraordinary Women in Robert Oppenheimer's Life. Turner, Nashville TN, 2013 [Kitty Oppenheimer, Jean Tatlock].

Teller, Edward, with Judith Shoolery. Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics. Perseus Publishing, Cambridge MA, 2001.

VanDeMark, Brian. Pandora's Keepers: Nine Men and the Atomic Bomb. Back Bay Books, New York, 2009 [Hans Bethe, Niels Bohr, Arthur Holly Compton, Enrico Fermi, Ernest Lawrence, J. Robert Oppenheimer, I.I. Rabi, Leo Szilard, Edward Teller].

Weart, Spencer R., and Gertrud Weiss Szilard, eds. Leo Szilard: His Version of the Facts. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1978.

York, Herbert. The Advisors: Oppenheimer, Teller, and the Superbomb. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA, 1976.

The Institute for Advanced Study

Arntzenius, Linda G. Institute for Advanced Study: Images of America. Arcadia, Charleston SC, 2011.

Batterson, Steve. Pursuit of Genius: Flexner, Einstein, and the Early Faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study. AK Peters, Wellesley MA, 2006.

Dyson, George. Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe. Pantheon, New York, 2012 [John von Neumann].

Feldman, Burton. Einstein's Genius Club: The True Story of a Group of Scientists Who Changed the World. Arcade, New York, 2011.

Flexner, Abraham, with Robbert Dijkgraaf. The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 2017.

Levy, Serge J-F. A Community of Scholars: Impressions of the Institute for Advanced Study. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 2012.

Nasar, Sylvia. A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1998.

Regis, Ed. Who Got Einstein's Office? Eccentricity and Genius at the Institute for Advanced Study. Addison-Wesley, Reading MA, 1987.

The Nature of Time and Space

Davies, Paul. How to Build a Time Machine. Penguin, New York, 2001.

Falk, Dan. In Search of Time: Journeys Along a Curious Dimension. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, 2008.

Gleick, James. Time Travel: A History. Pantheon, New York, 2016.

Gott, J. Richard. Time Travel in Einstein's Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time. Houghton Mifflin, New York, 2001.

Halpern, Paul. The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality. Basic Books, New York, 2017.

Mallett, Ronald L., with Bruce Henderson. Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality. Basic Books, New York, 2007.

Muller, Richard A. Now: The Physics of Time. W.W. Norton, New York, 2016.

Oppenheimer, J. Robert, and Robert Serber. "On the Stability of Stellar Neutron Cores," Physical Review, volume 54 (1938), page 608.

Oppenheimer, J. Robert, and Hartland Snyder. "On Continued Gravitational Contraction," Physical Review, volume 56 (1939), page 455.

Oppenheimer, J. Robert, and George Volkoff. "On Massive Neutron Cores," Physical Review, volume 54 (1939), page 540.

Rovelli, Carlo. The Order of Time. Riverhead, New York, 2018.

Smolin, Lee, and Roberto Mangabeira Unger. The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time: A Proposal in Natural Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 2015.

Thorne, Kip S. Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy. W.W Norton, New York, 1994.

Yourgrau, Palle. A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein. Basic Books, Cambridge MA, 2006.

Mars and Project Orion

Brower, Kenneth. The Starship and the Canoe. Henry Holt, New York, 1978.

David, Leonard. Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet. National Geographic, Washington DC, 2016.

de Vaucouleurs, Gérard. Physics of the Planet Mars: An Introduction to Areophysics (translated by Patrick Moore). Faber and Faber, London, 1954.

Dyson, George. Project Orion: The Atomic Spaceship 1957-1965. Allen Lane, London, 2002.

Godwin, Robert, ed. Mars: The NASA Mission Reports, Volume One. Apogee, Burlington ON, 2000 [including Mariner IV].

Mallove, Eugene, and Gregory Matloff, The Starflight Handbook: A Pioneer's Guide to Interstellar Travel. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1989.

Morton, Oliver. Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World. Picador, New York, 2002.

Sheehan, William. The Planet Mars: A History of Observation and Discovery. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1996.

Zubrin, Robert. The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996, 2011.

More Good Reading

• The Oppenheimer-Snyder paper proposing what we now call black holes
• Official 1962 U.S. Air Force map of Mars showing canals
• Mariner IV photo #11 showing Mars craters
• Frank Drake's article on Jupiter's radiation (starts at bottom right of first page)
• Freeman J. Dyson on the death of Project Orion

More about The Oppenheimer Alternative
Robert J. Sawyer's awards and honors
What's a Rob Sawyer novel like?
Review index

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