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Comprehensive coverage of winners, arranged chronologically, beginning with Wilhelm Roentgen (1901), ending with Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz, and Jack Steinberger, the winners in 1988. To provide readers with some historical perspective, articles are preceded by a listing of the winners in the other disciplines (literature, chemistry, medicine, peace, economic sciences) for the same year. A photograph of th laureate appears at the beginning of each article. A brief description of the individual's impact on physics and why he or she won the award appears in italics. The text of each essay (average 3,500 words) gives a synopsis of the speech delivered by the award's presenter, an overview of the laureate's address describing the prize winning work, a survey of the popular and professional responses to the Academy's choice, a biography sketching major events of the laureate's life, and, in roughly one-third to one-half of the article, an account of the laureate's professional life, highlighting important research, experiments, and publications. A primary bibliography lists the laureates' principal works, by genre, through 1988; the secondary bibliography lists works about each laureate and is annotated, providing readers with criteria for choosing sources for further study. A splendid reference work. Annotation(c) 2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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CHOICE Review

For the most seminal scientific figures, there are usually a number of books and periodical articles to be found at varying degrees of scientific sophistication; for the merely famous, there may, surprisingly, be few accessible sources. Among the 133 recipients of the Nobel Prize in physics from 1901 through 1988, both categories are represented; all are covered by this compact three-volume set. The winners are arranged chronologically; one finds for each a 6 to 10 page article, giving a poorly reproduced portrait, a brief summary of the presentation speech made to him, a brief summary of his acceptance speech, an account of his scientific reputation, both a personal and a scientific biography, a usually incomplete list of his scientific publications (with inadequate citations), and useful but uneven annotated references to further sources about both the biographical and scientific aspects. (The complete text of the speeches is now published only in the Nobelstiftelsen series Les prix nobel (1901- ), often only in the original language; the four-volume series "Nobel Lectures. . ." (Nobelstiftelsen. Physics) gives speeches and laureates' biographies in English, but covers only 1901-1970.) The level of this work is accessible to the non-specialist undergraduate; a more scholarly presentation of the nature and significance of the scientific work of those figures who died before 1980 can be found in the 16-volume Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1970-80). The present set might be employed together with the very similar one-volume Nobel Prize Winners, ed. by T. Wasson (CH, Apr '88) which, though less substantial, includes additional biographical references. This Magill set is the best starting point for undergraduates. -D. Goodman, Princeton University