A Beautiful Mind Part 31

7. Martha Nash Legg, interview, 3.29.96.

8. Duchane, interview.

9. A. Nash, interview.

10. Duchane, interview.

11. A. Nash, interview.

12. Duchane, interview.

13. Ibid.

14. William Ted Martin, interview, 9.7.95.

15. Gian-Carlo Rota, interview, 10.29.94.

16. Letter from John Nash to Virginia Nash, 3.12.59.

17. Letter from John Nash to Martha Nash Legg, 3.12.59.

18. A. Nash, interview, 7.1.97.

19. Al Vasquez, interview, 6.17.97.

20. Duchane, interview.

21. Ibid.

22. Paul S. Cohen, interview, 1.5.96.

23. Gertrude Moser, interview, 8.25.95.

24. Kay Whitehead, professor of mathematics, Tufts University interview, 12.12.95.

36: Day Breaks in Bowditch Hall

1. Paul S. Cohen, interview, 1.5.96.

2. Adriano Garsia, interview, 12.31.95.

3. Cohen, interview.

4. My description of how MIT's psychiatric sendee likely handled Nash's commitment is based on interviews with Benson Rowell Snyder, who was hired by President Julius Stratton to reorganize the service, interview, 7.24.97; Wade Rockwood, interview, 7.26.97; Merton J. Kahne, professor, MIT, interview, 5.15.96; Harvey Burstein, former FBI agent who was brought in by Stratton to expand MIT's campus police, interview, 7.3.97.

5. The description of how Nash was taken to McLean against his will is based on a contemporaneous account by a former dean of Tufts Medical School, A. Warren Stearns, who interviewed Nash shortly after his commitment (letter fron Stearns to Bernard Bradley, 4.14.59), and a further elaboration by Nash (E-mail, 5.15.98).

6. Snyder, interview.

7. For a portrait of McLean as it was in the 1950s, I relied on an official history by S. B. Sutton, A Histon' of McLean Hospital A Histon' of McLean Hospital (Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, 1986); annual reports; firsthand accounts by Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, and Ray Charles, as well as Suzanna Kaysen's more recent report, (Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, 1986); annual reports; firsthand accounts by Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, and Ray Charles, as well as Suzanna Kaysen's more recent report, Girl, Interrupted; Girl, Interrupted; and interviews with individuals a.s.sociated with McLean in that era, including Paul Howard, former a.s.sociate psychiatrist in chief and director of the clinical service, 2.15.95; Kahne; Joseph Brenner, 7.23.97; Arthur Cain, psychiatrist, 8.20.97; Alfred Pope, senior neuropathologist, McLean Hospital, and professor of neuropathology, Harvard Medical School, 12.13.95 and 2.16.96. and interviews with individuals a.s.sociated with McLean in that era, including Paul Howard, former a.s.sociate psychiatrist in chief and director of the clinical service, 2.15.95; Kahne; Joseph Brenner, 7.23.97; Arthur Cain, psychiatrist, 8.20.97; Alfred Pope, senior neuropathologist, McLean Hospital, and professor of neuropathology, Harvard Medical School, 12.13.95 and 2.16.96.

8. Robert Garber, former president, American Psychiatric a.s.sociation, interview, 5.6.96.

9. Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, The Bell Jar, op. cit.; Ray Charles, op. cit.; Ray Charles, Brother Rav Brother Rav (New York: Da Capo, 1978, 1992). (New York: Da Capo, 1978, 1992).

10. Letter from A. W. Stearns to B. Bradley, 5.14.53.

11. Zipporah Levinson, interview, 9.11.95.

12. Emma Duchane, interview, 6.26.97.

13. Robert Lowell was hospitalized at McLean at the end of April 1959. Lowell was confined to Bowditch, as he had been two years earlier when he wrote "Day Breaks at Bowditch Hall," one of the poems in To the Union Dead. To the Union Dead. Several of Nash's visitors, including Gian-Carlo Rota, Isadore Singer, and Arthur Mattuck, recall encounters with Lowell, and therefore it seems that Nash, too, was confined to Bowditch. Since we have no firsthand reports from Nash, I have made use of Lowell's impressions from 1957 and 1959, augmented by the impressions of some of Lowell's visitors, including his wife, writer Elizabeth Hardwrck, letter, 8.8.97; poet Stanley Kunitz, interview, 8.2.97; and Lowell's executor, Frank Bidart, interview, 7.27.97. See also Ian Hamilton, Several of Nash's visitors, including Gian-Carlo Rota, Isadore Singer, and Arthur Mattuck, recall encounters with Lowell, and therefore it seems that Nash, too, was confined to Bowditch. Since we have no firsthand reports from Nash, I have made use of Lowell's impressions from 1957 and 1959, augmented by the impressions of some of Lowell's visitors, including his wife, writer Elizabeth Hardwrck, letter, 8.8.97; poet Stanley Kunitz, interview, 8.2.97; and Lowell's executor, Frank Bidart, interview, 7.27.97. See also Ian Hamilton, Robert Lowell: A Biography Robert Lowell: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1982); Paul Mariani, (New York: Random House, 1982); Paul Mariani, The Lost Puritan, The Lost Puritan, op. cit., and interview, 7.28.97; Peter Davison, op. cit., and interview, 7.28.97; Peter Davison, The Fading Smile: Poets in Boston, 19551960, from Robert Frost to Robert Lowell to Sylvia Plath The Fading Smile: Poets in Boston, 19551960, from Robert Frost to Robert Lowell to Sylvia Plath (New York: Knopf, 1994), and interview, 8.11.97. (New York: Knopf, 1994), and interview, 8.11.97.

14. "I've been conditioning here for about a month," letter from Robert Lowell to Edmund Wilson, 5.19.59, from Bowditch House; "In the hospital I spent a mad month or more rewriting everything in my three books," letter from Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop, 7.24.59.

15. Elizabeth Hardwick, personal communication, 9.8.97.

16. Arthur Mattuck, e-mail, 8.8.97.

17. "The house I was in was divided between ex-paranoid boys and senile old men," letter from Robert Lowell to Peter Taylor, 3.15.58.

18. Letter from R. Lowell to E. Bishop, 3.15.58.

19. Ibid.; also "Waking in the Blue," Robert Lowell, Life Studies and For the Union Dead Life Studies and For the Union Dead (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992). Quotes in this and the following paragraphs are taken from "Waking" unless otherwise noted. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992). Quotes in this and the following paragraphs are taken from "Waking" unless otherwise noted.

20. From "Waking in the Blue"; also Duchane, interview.

21. Letter from R. Lowell to E. E. Bishop; also "Waking in the Blue." Bishop; also "Waking in the Blue."

22. Seymour Krim, "The Insanity Bit," in View of a Nearsighted Cannoneer View of a Nearsighted Cannoneer (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1968). (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1968).

23. Al Vasquez, interview, 6.17.97.

24. Z. Levinson, interview.

25. Vasquez, interview.

26. Garsia, interview.

27. Jurgen Moser, interview, 3.23.96.

28. Duchane, interview.

29. George Mackey, interview, 12.14.95.

30. Herta Newman, interview, 3.2.96.

31. Felix Browder, interview, 1.2.95.

32. Gian-Carlo Rota, interview, 10.29.94.

33. Garsia, interview.

34. This is Jerome Lettvin's term, Jerome Lettvin, professor of electrical engineering, MIT, interview, 7.25.97.

35. John McCarthy, interview, 2.4.96.

36. Arthur Mattuck, interview, 11.7.95.

37. I am a.s.suming that Nash's treatment was similar to that of other patients and have based my account on the recollections of Paul Howard, clinical director of McLean at the time, as well as other McLean staffers, including Joseph Brenner, psychiatrist, interview, 7.25.97; Cain, interview; Kahne, interview.

38. Letter from A. W. Stearns to B. Bradley, 5.20.59.

39. Kahne, interview.

40. Brenner, interview, 7.23.97.

41. Z. Levinson, interview.

42. Cohen, interview; F. Browder, interview.

43. Francine M. Benes, psychiatrist, McLean Hospital, interview, 2.13.96.

44. See, for example, Mariani, op. cit., and Hamilton, op. cit.

45. Kahne, interview; also Howard, interview.

46. Kahne, interview.

47. Howard, interview.

48. Brenner, interview.

49. Z. Levinson, interview.

50. Isadore Singer, interview, 12.13.95.

51. Letter from A. W. Stearns to B. Bradley, 5.20.59.

52. Duchane, interview.

53. Letter from A. W. Stearns to B. Bradley, 5.20.59.

54. Taffy' Griffiths, physician, Princeton, 5.20.59, and interview, 7.95.

55. Notes of a telephone conversation between A. Warren Stearns and Bernard E. Bradley, attorney, 5.13.59. In an interview (8.19.97), Bradley said that he handled many similar cases, but did not recall Nash.

56. The sketch of A. Warren Stearns is based on a biographical essay provided by the Tufts University archives; an interview with his son Charles Stearns, 3.14.96; and an interview with Paul Samuelson, who knew Stearns, 3.15.96.

57. A. W. Stearns and B. Bradley phone conversation, 5.14.59.

58. Letter from A. W. Stearns to B. Bradley, 5.20.59.

59. Ibid.

60. Letter from Robert A. Grimes, attorney, Hardy, Hall & Grimes, to A. Warren Stearns, 6.18.59.

61. Letter from A. W. Stearns to B. Bradley, 5.20.59.

62. Ibid.

37: Mad Hatter's Tea

1. Emma Duchane, interview, 6.26.97. The sketch of Alicia Nash and the final months of her pregnancy are based on this.

2. Confidential source.

3. Confidential source.

4. Michael Artin, interview, 12.12.95.

5. Confidential source.

6. Zipporah Levinson, interview, 9.11.95.

7. Al Vasquez, interview, 6.17.97.

8. Letter from John Nash to Lars Hormander, undated (arrived around 6.1.59).

9. Gaby Borel, interview, 9.94.

10. John Nash, plenary lecture, World Congress of Psychiatry, Madrid, 8.26.96, op. cit.

11. Paul Samuelson, interview, 3.16.97.

12. Z. Levinson, interview.

13. William Ted Martin, interview, 9.7.95.

14. A. Warren Stearns, note for file, 6.15.59.

15. Samuelson, interview.

16. Letter from Henry Y. Wan, Jr., to author, 6.5.96.