Add MS 84116

1. Letter (1 f) typescript with signature in blue ballpoint, from Alick Elthorn, Department of Psychological Medicine, The Royal Free Hospital, Liverpool Road Branch, Islington, N1 0QE, 12 December 1973, to George Price, Galton Laboratory, University College London.

2. Letter (1 f), photocopy, from John C. Eccles, Department of Physiology, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University, Post Office Box 275, Canberra City, ACT, Australia, 20 January 1965, to George Price at International Business Machines Corporation, Data Systems Division, Development Laboratory, Box 390, Poughkeepsie, New York 12602, USA. John Eccles (1903-1997) physiologist, Nobel Laureate.

3. Letter (2 ff), carbon copy typescript, from George Price, 88 Bedford Street, New York 14, New York, 8 December 1960, to Claude E. Shannon, 5 Cambridge Street, Winchester, Massachusetts. Claude Shannon (1916-2001), electrical engineer and mathematician.

4. Reprint article (1 f) ‘Where is the definitive experiment?’ by George R. Price (1956), Science 123 (3184): 17-18. The article concerns debate about experimental research into the supernatural, and the need for convincing tests of claims for parapsychological phenomena.

5. Outlines of three possible experiments (4 ff) typescript with annotations, 20 June 1944, George Price, concerning tolerance dose, cellular destruction, lethal mutations, ionizing particles, nucleic acid metabolism. This is one of the earliest papers in the collection. It points to an early interest in genetics and nucleic acids.

6. Letter with enclosed letter (2 ff): cover letter, typescript with signed initials (1 f) from John Maynard Smith, Biology Building, The University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, Sussex BN1 9QG, 17 June 1974, to George Price, The Galton Laboratory, University College London; enclosed letter, typescript with signature (1 f) from Valerius Geist, Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary, Calgary 44, Alberta, Canada, 22 April 1974, to George Price, The Galton Laboratory, University College London. Valerius Geist, expert on the deer family, Cervidae.

7. Airmail letter (1 f) typescript aerogramme signed, 10 December 1967, from George Price, Overseas Visitors Club, 180 Earls Court Road, London SW5, to his two daughters, Annamarie and Kathleen Price, soon after his arrival in the UK in November 1967: 'I have seen quite a lot of London so far, including the British Museum library, the Museum of Natural History library, the University of London library, the University College library, the Wellcome Historical Medical Library, and the Science and Technology library. Soon I hope to visit the Royal College of Surgeons library and the Royal [sic] Zoological Society library.'

8. Letter, carbon copy typescript (1 f), 6 February 1968, from George Price (mentions Overseas Visitors Club), to his two daughters Annamarie and Kathleen Price. Thanks them for 'fascinating box' with fruit cake, books, pistol, pea shooter, horoscope. Discusses marriage, the operation on him by Ferguson, the book entitled The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris, and Price’s ideas regarding evolution.

9. Letter (1 f) typescript, signed, 29 May 1971, from George Price to his daughter Kathleen Price. Explains his interest in language evolution, Fisher’s Fundamental Theorem of natural selection, his publication of an article in Nature, his attempt to publish in Science, and the writer C. S. Lewis. Also discusses family.

10. Letter (2 ff), carbon copy typescript, 28 July 1969, from George Price to W D Hamilton. Thanks WDH for his 29 July [amended by hand, August] 1968 letter 'written under difficult field conditions in Brazil…'. 'What happened was that – to my surprise – I did not derive the same expressions you obtained. This led me to reconsider the conclusions you stated on page 16 of your 1964 paper.' 'On further studying the mathematics, I found that I had a surprisingly simple equation for gene frequency change under selection…. I didn’t think such a simple thing could be new, so went to visit the Galton Laboratory one day last September, went into the departmental office and asked to speak to a mathematical geneticist. So I was taken to see Cedric Smith. He looked at my equation, said it was very pretty and he had never seen anything like it, asked what I was doing in London, and when he heard that I was living on savings and was totally unaffiliated, he took me to meet Harris [Head of Department], and I was given an honorary appointment'. Mentions a meeting with Lewontin in New York 'who was giving some lectures at Columbia'. The letter concludes with a wish to meet WDH: …'I would enjoy meeting you – as was my conclusion originally when I read your March 21 1968 letter [item 27 below] and tried to telephone you'.

11. Letter (1 f) carbon copy typescript, 11 November 1969, from George Price to Bill (W. D. Hamilton). 'I hope this paper includes whatever covariance selection math you may want to use for your piece'. 'Incidentally, what I said to you over the phone about relative inclusive fitness, I decided on further thought wasn’t right'. 'In case you wonder how I got my piece criticized so fast: I got it typed in good form Sunday night, called up Cedric Monday morning and asked for an appointment, and got one for 11:30 and he read the paper during the appointment. Then I rewrote last night. The trick is to get something short that he’ll read while you’re there, so that it doesn’t get mixed up in his vast backlog of things to read'.

12. Letter (2 ff), blue ink in W. D. Hamilton’s hand, Imperial College Field Station Silwood Park, 5 December 1969, to George Price. Refers to a first draft note he is writing for Nature. Indicates that he wishes to acknowledge more sufficiently his debt to Price’s algebra. 'Incidentally if you agree with the conclusions I draw… I would be pleased for you to add your name as co-author…'.

13. Letter (1 f) blue ink in W. D. Hamilton’s hand, Southfield, Hungerford Lane, Shurlock Row, near Reading, Berkshire, 11 June 1974, to George Price. Discusses sexual selection and beetles; eg ‘rhinoceros’ beetles which WDH collected in Pembrokeshire. 'One other thought that I had was that it will be necessary in the model to have some hereditary basis for the utilitarian character: otherwise I don’t see that the epigamic character can get correlated with fitness, if this depends entirely on its utilitarian character'.

14. Letter (1 f) blue ink in W. D. Hamilton’s hand, Imperial College Field Station, Silwood Park, 21 July 1970, to George Price. Mentions the Polish ecologist Adam Lomnicki and the possibility of him meeting Price.

15. Letter (1 f) blue ink in W. D. Hamilton’s hand, Imperial College Field Station, Silwood Park, 22 October 1970, to George Price. Reports to Price that WDH’s Nature paper has been accepted. Long discussion about Conan-Doyle’s writings, including his characterisation of genius in Sherlock Holmes.

16. Letter (3 ff) carbon copy typescript, 21 September 1970, from George Price to Bill (W. D. Hamilton). 'It was not possible to accept your kind invitation to visit with my daughters'. The letter largely concerns itself with replying to letter of 21 July 1970 by WDH, discussing WDH’s paper, Price’s ‘Science and the Supernatural’, telepathy, Christianity, and two of C. S. Lewis’s books The Problem of Pain and Miracles. Reports that he did not see Adam Lomnicki.

17. Letter (1 f), blue ink in W. D. Hamilton’s hand, 15 April 1971, to George Price. 'These notes on elementary natural selection using your approach are intended for duplication for issue to the students…'. 'After reading your absolutely fascinating article on the chronology of the first Holy Week – which I find very convincing, although I am no judge and am generally a sitting duck for new theories in fields I don’t know much about!'. Mentions Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. 'A. E. Housman expresses my feelings about Christianity pretty accurately…'. Also discusses Chekov and the translator Constance Garnett.

18. Letter (1 f) carbon copy typescript, from George Price, 1A Little Titchfield Street, London W1P 7FG, 14 March 1972, to Bill (W. D. Hamilton).

19. Letter (1 f), blue ink in W. D. Hamilton’s hand, n.d., to George Price: the letter apparently accompanied a book which WDH returned to GRP, apologising for having it for so long, and reporting that he will be back from the USA around 4th April.

20. Letter (1 f), black ballpoint in W. D. Hamilton’s hand, Imperial College Field Station, Silwood Park, 11 January 1970, to George Price. The letter is largely devoted to comments on comments made by Price on WDH’s paper for Nature. The letter concludes: 'We have now moved out of London and are living in complete chaos at Southfields, Hungerford Lane, Shurlock Row, Twyford, Berks. (telephone not connected yet). Woodworm, rot, mortgage, dripping taps, travel by car, and two Brazilian children at present in our care create an atmosphere far from conducive to thought & creative work; I feel rather like Dives in hell writing a letter to Lazarus at the moment'.

21. Letter (4 ff), blue ballpoint in W. D. Hamilton’s hand, Southfield, Hungerford Lane, Shurlock Row, Reading, Berkshire, 22 November 1972, to George Price. Mentions Assyrian émigrés in London known by WDH’s father Archibald Hamilton who built a strategically significant road in Kurdistan, Iraq; WDH encourages GRP to get in touch with one of them who is a scholar in Syriac, A. J. de Kelaita, to discuss biblical chronology and similar matters.

22. Letter (3 ff) typescript with amendments and appended writing in black ballpoint in W. D. Hamilton’s hand, Southfield, Shurlock Row, near Reading, Berkshire, 28 November 1971, to George Price. The letter begins: 'Thanks for your letter. You are generous to write another such a long one in reply to my miserable card.' Mentions his first daughter Helen and expresses regret that after two and half years Godo and Romilda, his foster children, have returned to Brazil. Much of the letter addresses (i) Price’s thinking about Christianity and the Bible, and (ii) a paper by Richard Levins ‘Extinction’ in a book entitled Some Mathematical Problems in Biology. The letter concludes with a postscript mentioning the ‘Twelve Days of Easter’ manuscript, WDH’s sister Mary, an Australian cleric ('who couldn’t stand' the ms), an apposite quotation from Newton, and the possibility of the essay being published as a book: 'I rather hope you might manage to get into a Sunday paper in the coming Easter: that way you should be sure of stirring up a reaction from the establishment of N. T. scholars'.

23. Letter (1 f) carbon copy typescript, 2 June, from George Price to Bill (W. D. Hamilton). Mentions E. O. Wilson.

24. Letter (1 f), carbon copy typescript, 6 July, from George Price to Bill (W. D. Hamilton); on verso side, crossed out, draft of part of Preface to ‘The Twelve Days’.

25. Letter (1 f), carbon copy typescript, from George Price, 1A Little Titchfield Street, London W1P 7FG, 15 November 1971, to Bill (W. D. Hamilton).

26. Research proposal (24 ff), carbon copy typescript with occasional amendments and marginalia in handwriting, ‘Proposal to the Science Research Council’, ‘Supplementary details of intended research’ by George R. Price, Galton Laboratory, Department of Human Genetics, University College, London, May 1969. 'The main purpose of the work is to develop improved techniques for making inferences about hominid evolution in the Pleistocene going beyond what is directly shown by fossils and artifacts'.

27. Letter (2 ff), photocopy, from W. D. Hamilton, Imperial College of Science and Technology, Silwood Park, 21 March 1968, to Dr Price (George R. Price). This is the first letter between WDH and GRP in the George R. Price Papers; see related papers in the W. D. Hamilton Archive.

28. Letter, fragment (1 f), in Price's hand, photocopy, mentions: Cedric Smith, Shurlock Row, Drosophila, Medical Research Council.

29. Letter, carbon copy typescript (2 ff), 7 April 1970, from George Price to Bill (W. D. Hamilton).

30. Letter (2 ff), typescript (incomplete?), from George Price, P. O. Box 4 PF, London W1, 26 March 1968, to Dr W. D. Hamilton, Brazil.

31. Letter, (5 ff), carbon copy hand written, from George Price, 3 May 1971, to Bill (W. D. Hamilton).