An Atomic Love Story: The Extraordinary Women Behind Oppenheimer's Legacy

Everyone is talking about Oppenheimer but we want to talk about the extraordinary women in his life! Read on for more!

An Atomic Love Story

11 May 2023…Just weeks before the July 21 opening of Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated film, Oppenheimer, Turner Book Publishing has released a revised paperback edition of An Atomic Love Story: The Extraordinary Women In Robert Opppenheimer’s Life. While Emily Blunt (Kitty) and Florence Pugh (Jean) briefly appear in the movie trailer, the real women they portray are thoroughly fleshed out in the book by authors Shirley Streshinsky and Patricia Klaus.

Set against a dramatic backdrop of war, spies, and nuclear bombs, An Atomic Love Story unveils a vivid new view of a tumultuous era and one of its most important figures. In the early decades of the 20th century, three highly ambitious women found their way to the West Coast, where each was destined to collide with the young Oppenheimer, the enigmatic physicist whose work in creating the atomic bomb would forever impact modern history. His first and most intense love was for Jean Tatlock, though he married the tempestuous Kitty Harrison—both were members of the Communist Party—and was rumored to have had a scandalous affair with the brilliant Ruth Sherman Tolman, ten years his senior and the wife of another celebrated physicist. Each was connected through a relationship to Oppenheimer Their experiences reflect important changes in the lives of American women in the 20th century: the conflict between career and marriage; the need for a woman to define herself independently; experimentation with sexuality; and the growth of career opportunities.

Beautifully written and superbly researched through a rich collection of firsthand accounts, this intimate portrait shares the tragedies, betrayals, and romances of an alluring man and three bold women, revealing how they pushed to the very forefront of social and cultural changes in a fascinating, volatile era.

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About the Authors

Shirley Streshinsky is a critically acclaimed author of three works of nonfiction and four historical novels. As a journalist and travel essayist, she has written extensively for a wide range of national magazines such as Glamour, Preservation, American Heritage, The American Scholar, and Condé Nast Traveler. She is the recipient of the Society of Magazine Writers' Award for Excellence and the National Council for the Advancement of Education Writing award, and was cited by The Educational Press Association of America for "superlative achievement in features." Her travel essays have been a feature on National Public Radio. She was married to the late photojournalist Ted Streshinsky and lives in Kensington (Berkeley), California.

Patricia Klaus is an independent scholar who attended the University of California at Santa Barbara, and then Stanford University where she earned a Ph.D. in Modern British History. She taught twentieth-century British history at Yale University, was a visiting lecturer at the University of Virginia and Stanford, and has written a number of historical articles. Her particular interests are women in nineteenth and twentieth century England as well as the study of war and literature, which made working on a book about the remarkable women of the Atomic Age especially appealing.

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