CNU Library Blog

Left: John William Polidori. Right: A copy of The Vampyre, for which Lord Byron was falsely given credit. Polidori is now recognized as the author of The Vampyre. 

Happy birthday, Dr. John William Polidori! In 1816, Polidori became Lord Byron's personal physician. The two became friends with Mary Shelley and her husband Percy, and the group began writing macabre, horror stories. Mary Shelley's "The Monster" remains famous and iconic today. One of Byron's short stories became the basis of Polidori's longer book, The Vampyre. For years, authorship of this book was incorrectly attributed to Byron, who tried to correct the mistake and publish his own stories. 

You can read The Vampyre online for free through Project Gutenberg! Yay, internet! 

• "The Vampyre" by John William Polidori (Available to read online -- thanks, Project Gutenberg!) 
• Wikipedia: John William Polidori
• Goodreads: John William Polidori
• Goodreads: The Vampyre (A review) 
• The Guardian: Polidori's vampire (A review) 
• Love Vampires: The Vampyre -- notice that this source is all about vampire fiction -- I love it. People reading and writing on this blog will know more about vampire fiction than the average person, and have important opinions to consider. To even out this research, I've also linked reviews on more common sources like The Guardian and Goodreads. 
• London Remembers: John William Polidori

Title: A Life on Hold.

By: Josie Méndez-Negrete, 2015. 

Available: Academic eBook Collection. 

Description: "For more than twenty years Josie Méndez-Negrete has endured the emotional journey of watching her son Tito struggle with schizophrenia. Her powerful account is the first memoir by a Mexican American author to share the devastation and hope a family experiences in dealing with this mental illness. Méndez-Negrete depicts the evolution of the disease from her perspective as a parent and by relating Tito's own narrative, illuminating the inadequacies of the US mental health system and the added burdens of addiction and blame. Through the author, Tito paints a vivid picture of his lived experiences and everyday traumas to show how his life and the lives of his loved ones have been impacted by mental illness."

On this day in 2004, National Medal of Science winner Philip Abelson passed away.

Abelson is remembered for many things, including co-discovering the chemical element Neptunium. He also contributed his work on liquid thermal diffusion to the Manhattan project, made radioactive isotopes usable in medicine and other industries, found fatty acids in billion-year-old rocks, and, from 1962-1984, was the editor of Science, the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 1976, Abelson wrote an opinion piece in Science called "Enough with Pessimism." Interestingly, among all of his discoveries, he became well-known for writing this article. "Enough with Pessimism" is a commentary on the relationship between politics and the pursuit of scientific discoveries in the mid-20th century. Abelson went on to write a book of essays under the same title. You can read Abelson's "Enough with Pessimism" online through Science Magazine below, along with another article he wrote, "Bigotry in Science." 

Left: Philip Abelson. Right: Ross Gunn (left, physicist), Capt. William Parsons (middle, weaponeer), Philip Abelson (end) working on the Manhattan Project. 

Learn more: 

• "Enough with Pessimism" on Science Magazine online 
• Interview with Philip Abelson (from the Atomic Heritage Foundation
• Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory: Philip Abelson
• "Bigotry in Science" on Science Magazine online (Also by Abelson)