Derek John de Solla Price: an appreciation.

Abstract

Derek de Solla Price, Avalon Professor of the History of Science at Yale University, died on 3 September 1983 in London, of a heart attack. He was aged 61, and it was his fourth such attack. Derek Price was born in London on 22 January 1922. His father was a tailor and outfitter and his mother, Fanny de Solla, was a singer. His father's family were Ashkenazi Jews from Poland, and his mother's family were Sephardis who came from Amsterdam and earlier from Spain. It was to perpetuate his mother's family name that Derek added de Solla to his surname about 1950. Derek Price was a remarkable person, having one of the most creative intellects of our period. Throughout his life he worked almost alone, with few and sporadic collaborators. He came from no school and leaves none. He largely taught himself, found his own research topics, did the work mostly by himself, and wrote his books and lectures in his own style. Above all he thought for himself, and it is as an 'ideas man' that he should be remembered. He took immense pains to present his ideas clearly and to marshal the evidence which should make them believed. His writings were polished and his major lectures were rehearsed until a word could not be faulted. They were full of meat, garnished with much wit and grace, and were stuffed with learning, for he had enough of these ingredients to be generous with them. Derek Price began with physics, taking a BSc (with a first) and later a PhD in London, both externally, while working to support himself. He produced seven papers in physics before his major interest in the history of science began to dominate, and he managed to build a career in this field at Cambridge, getting a second PhD there, with the help of an ICI Fellowship. He did odd jobs, such as