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Cecilia Helena Payne Gaposchkin

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Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections Second Edition 2nd Edition

by Katherine Haramundanis (Editor)

4.5 12 ratings

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Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin is acclaimed as the greatest woman astronomer of all time. In this book, her own story of her professional life, work, and scientific achievements is augmented by the personal recollections of her daughter, Katherine Haramundanis. Other highlights include a scientific appreciation by Jesse Greenstein, a historical essay by Peggy Kidwell and, new to this edition, an introduction by Virginia Trimble. Payne-Gaposchkin's overwhelming love for astronomy was her personal guiding light, and her attitude and approach have lessons for all. She received many prestigious awards for her outstanding contributions to science. In 1956, she became the first woman Professor at Harvard University, as well as being the first woman departmental chair. This book will interest both astronomers and those studying the advancement of the position and status of women in society.

ISBN-10

0521483905
ISBN-13

978-0521483902
Edition

2nd
Publisher

Cambridge University Press
Publication date

March 21, 1996
Language

English
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
Print length

300 pages
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Editorial Reviews

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"...a very welcome addition to any library....A must read for all astronomy enthusiasts and students, and highly recommended for all woman interested in science." Choice

Book Description

Scientific and personal autobiography of the greatest woman astronomer of all time. The most famous graduate from Newnham College.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; 2nd edition (March 21, 1996)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0521483905
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0521483902
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,135,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,863 in Scientist Biographies
- #11,058 in Author Biographies
- #22,257 in Women's Biographies

Customer Reviews:
4.5 12 ratings

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Tony Marquise Jr.

A Very Great Lady And What She Did

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2016

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This book is the life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin as she remembered it. She is remembered as the greatest woman astronomer who ever lived. She starts with her family history and then goes into her childhood. She was born and raised in England in 1900. She tells how her parents and the English school system discrimated against girls and how it hurt her education and destroyed her social life. Fighting an uphill battle she did get a good education. But as those in power in England would not hire women with her degree(! yes, its true),she came to Harvard University under a fellowship. She started working under Harlow Shapley there, who gave her much freedom in choice of the fields she worked on but who underpaid women who worked in the astronomy department. I recommend this book to show how a very great woman changed the science of astronomy by having the courage to overcome the dicrimination she faced both in England and the United States. Read this book and discover things about both countries that you did not know about either country.

17 people found this helpful

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Cam Mal

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2018

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Great book amazing woman.

One person found this helpful

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Thomas C. Fletcher

An excellent biography & autobiography of a great astronomer

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2015

I bought the first edition of this book when it came out in the mid 1980s and it is a little shorter than the one here. It includes her autobiography, "The Dyers's Hand", and essays from her colleague Jesse Greenstein, her daughter Katherine Haramundanis and historian Peggy Kidwell. It is a very readable book and includes Dr. Payne's recollections of a long life.

Born in England in 1900 she was a good student, well-rounded and interested in many things. She chose astronomy and, after college in the UK went to the US to work on a graduate degree in astronomy. She worked under Henry Norris Russell who, at that time (the 1920s) was the most celebrated American astronomer. She worked on the spectra of stars and there was a competition between her and another of Russell's students, Donald Menzel.

Ms. Payne found that there was a lot of hydrogen and helium in the stars, something that made little sense to the astronomers of the time and Russell thought there must be something wrong with her findings and so she played them down. That was one of the most important findings in stellar research because, as they soon learned, most stars, most of the time convert hydrogen to helium; indeed, all stars spend most of their lifetimes converting hydrogen, this being the source of their great energies and responsible for making possible things like the evolution of life and the great age of earth and the other planets.

She did get her doctorate from this work and was the first one to get a doctorate at Radcliffe or Harvard in astronomy. She worked there for many years and did research on many different areas of astronomy, writing technical books on novae, variable stars, the structure of galaxies and an introductory text on astronomy. She also wrote a number of popular books on astronomy.

Her name is not so well known to the average person, but it is very well known to astronomers and people interested in astronomy. This book is a very good way to get to know not only the scientist but the person as well.

13 people found this helpful

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reader77

Not what I expected

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

Way over-priced. Not sure what makes this so costly. Paperback, smaller than most textbooks.

One person found this helpful

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Anastasia Hobbet

Why don't you know this woman's name?

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2012

Why don't you know this woman's name? This remarkable British/American woman, who died in 1979, was one of the foremost physicists of the Twentieth century, the first to recognize the chemical make-up of the sun, a discovery that instantly put many of the then-accepted notions of the universe itself into question. The eminent physicists she worked with at the Harvard Observatory--all men, needless to say--pooh-poohed her conclusions, and when her discoveries did come to prominence, it was her boss who got most of the credit. It's only in the last couple of decades that her name has become linked, in academia at least, with the praise it deserves. The rest of us dolts don't know who the heck she was. But this slender book can begin to correct that with its helpful forward by her daughter, which gives more background about her mother's life. Payne was a Renaissance woman, an independent spirit, a keen wit--and a fine writer. Her memoir is full of deep pleasures.

22 people found this helpful

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John A. Shaw

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2008

Verified Purchase

I saw the previous review and had to write a real review for those interested in this book. The book has effectively four introductory essays by Virginia Trimble, Jesse Greenstein, Peggy Kidwell, and Katherine Haramundanis. Each of these essays are well worth reading on their own and they place Cecilia Payne, later Payne-Gaposchkin by marriage, in context. I will refer to her as "CPG" from now on.

The part of the book written by CPG, "The Dyer's Hand" is a memoir of growing up in England, being a woman scientist at Cambridge, and moving to Harvard to become an astronomer when being a woman still made the directors of the Harvard Observatory immediate think of placing you in the pool of woman calculators -- underpaid and not considered on the scientific level of the men. CPG helped change that. She applied the then new ideas of Saha to the analysis of the sun's spectrum and realized that the sun was made up of a huge amount of hydrogen compared to helium and the other elements. Up to the publication of her thesis in the 1920's no one really understood that stars were mostly hydrogen and helium. Earlier observations had been incorrectly interpreted as showing that the sun had the same abundances of the elements as the earth. CPG helped force astronomers to revise their stellar models -- the first step to truly understanding the stars and the composition of the universe.

Her working life spanned roughly 50 years and she devoted her life to astronomy even though it was not until the 1950's that Harvard woke up and gave her a job title other than "assistant" to the director of the observatory. She helped create our understanding of how stars work. She was a gifted writer. This is an amazing life and the autobiography is necessary reading.

49 people found this helpful

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