109 East Palace; Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos

New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2005. First edition. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. xviii, [2], 425, [3] p. Illustrations. Endpaper maps. Author's Note on Sources. Selected Bibliography. Index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Autographed sticker on front of DJ. Signed by the author on title page. Other writing on second fep. Small scratch on back of DJ. In 1943, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant, charismatic head of the Manhattan Project, recruited scientists to live as virtual prisoners of the U.S. government at Los Alamos, a barren mesa thirty-five miles outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. Thousands of men, women, and children spent the war years sequestered in this top-secret military facility. They lied to friends and family about where they were going and what they were doing, and then disappeared into the desert. Through the eyes of a young Santa Fe widow who was one of Oppenheimer's first recruits, we see how, for all his flaws, he developed into an inspiring leader and motivated all those involved in the Los Alamos project to make a supreme effort and achieve the unthinkable. Jennet Conant (born 15 July 1959) is an American non-fiction author and journalist. She has written four books about World War II, three of which have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list. Her second book, 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos (2005), is an account of the history, science, politics and struggles surrounding the building of the atomic bomb. It includes insights from the author's grandfather, James B. Conant, who was an administrator for the Manhattan Project In 2006, it won the Spirit of the West Award for literary achievement in nonfiction. Julius Robert Oppenheimer (April 22, 1904 February 18, 1967) was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, Oppenheimer is among those who are called the "father of the atomic bomb" for their role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II project that developed the first nuclear weapons that ended the war with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."