Book News

In one of the poems in his recent A Diary of Pique 1983-1984, Carl Djerassi '43 describes chemists as synthesizers, dissectors, and manipulators of molecules, adding: "For molecules read words: / You have defined the poet." The indefatigable Djerassi, renowned as a chemist, has for thirty years now been synthesizing an impressive literary career. That career is honored in The SciArtist, a book of commentaries on Djerassi's science-infused novels, plays, poetry, and fiction. Edited by scholar Walter Grünzweig and published by Lit Verlag, the book includes eighteen essays that together offer a picture of this Renaissance man's wide-ranging intellectual life (he is also an art collector and patron). Djerassi returned to the Kenyon campus in October for a three-day visit, during which he gave two lectures and watched a staged reading of his play Insufficiency. The play has recently been published by Imperial College Press in a volume, Chemistry in Theatre, which also includes the play Phallacy.