From Retorts to Lasers: The Story of Chemistry at Berkeley

Berkeley: University of California, 1987. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/none as issued. About fine assumed first edition, "Distributed by the College of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley" without an ISBN (presumably printed for a limited audience). Blue cloth boards with gold foil stamping of a cupola and title on cover and gold foil stamping on spine. Binding is sturdy, square and tight. Previous owner's name neatly stamped on FFE, otherwise as new. Text clean and bright. Laid in is a fine alumnae solicitation with historic photos from Berkeley, printed in 1997. Illustrated with b/w photo plates. ix, 292 pp. including index. Octavo, 6 x 9 1/4 inches tall. William Lee Jolly, professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, whose work helped facilitate the renaissance of inorganic chemistry in the United States during the middle of the 20th century...Jolly worked as a group leader at the newly formed Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA, from 1953-55. There he helped to devise unusual forms of lithium deuteride and lithium tritide for use in the testing of thermonuclear devices. He joined the Berkeley faculty in 1955 and began his career teaching freshman chemistry and inorganic chemistry classes. During the 1950s and 1960s, he established courses, seminars and research programs in inorganic chemistry that have flourished to the present. Jolly wrote more than 300 articles in leading scientific journals and wrote or edited numerous books, including Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry, The Synthesis and Characterization of Inorganic Compounds and, in 1987, From Retorts to Lasers: The Story of Chemistry at Berkeley. -- author's obituary