A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes under the Auspices of the United States Government 1940-1945. Written at the request of Major General L. R. Groves United State Army. Publication authorised as of August 1945.

SMYTH, Henry DeWolf.

Published by Washington D.C. Adjutant General's Office, 1945

About this Item

First lithoprint edition; perfect bound; 2 full-page graphs, equations within the text, leaves VII-9/10 and VII-11/12 duplicated, a little creasing to the corners of the text block; wire-stitched in the original stiff, cream-coloured textured wrappers, 'released for publication on' printed on the upper wrapper, and housed in a custom brown morocco-backed folding case, ownership signature to upper wrapper, a few small spots and marks, light rubbing, and a little creasing of the wrappers, finet condition; 99 leaves. The rare lithoprint edition, the first obtainable edition of the official account of the development of the atomic bomb, with the full text on page VI-12, usually left blank to keep information on plutonium production rates secret. Because of the speed and security precautions under which the report was printed and bound, to be made public only six days after the bombing of Hiroshima, leaves are often missing or duplicated. In this case there is no text on page IX-10, and two leaves, VII-9/10 and VII-11/12, are duplicated. New bibliographical information, originally compiled by Arnold Kramish and recently rediscovered by Michael Zinman and Brett Tomlinson, indicates that there were actually three printings of 2,000 copies each of the lithoprint edition, not the single printing of 1,000 copies as indicated by the standard reference, Coleman's 'Descriptive Checklist'. From information presently available this copy is identified as one of the first two printings, as it lacks the colophon on leaf A5-1. Tomlinson is currently preparing an article with further details about differentiating the printings. This copy bears the ownership signature of Wayne W. Johnson, a personnel director of the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago. The Metallurgical Laboratory was established in 1939 by Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard, two of the prime movers of the Manhattan Project, in order to study the chemistry of plutonium, its chain reaction, and how it could be isolated in quantities large enough to produce a weapon. 'The Smyth Report', as this volume is more commonly known, was the official, unclassified narrative of the weapon's development, a 'remarkably full and candid account' intended for general release once the weapon's existence was made public (Printing and the Mind of Man 422). The first edition was a mimeographed version stamped secret, of which all copies save Smyth's were destroyed. The next was this lithoprint, published in an edition of only 1,000 copies that were distributed to Manhattan Project leaders and members of the press, followed by a Government Printing Office edition. The first trade edition was published in September 1945 by Princeton University. It remained on the New York Times best-seller list until January of the following year and would go through eight printings by 1973. PMM 422; Coleman (The 'Smyth Report': A Descriptive Check List); Hook & Norman (The Norman Library of Science and Medicine), 1962.

Seller Inventory # 112920

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes under the Auspices of the United States Government 1940-1945. Written at the request of Major General L. R. Groves United State Army. Publication authorised as of August 1945.
• Publisher: Washington D.C. Adjutant General's Office
• Publication Date: 1945
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition