Dinner in Camelot by Joseph A. Esposito

Author:Joseph A. Esposito
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of New England

Seated on either side of Pauling were the wives of men prominent in different fields. On his right was Mary Waterman, whose husband was director of the National Science Foundation, and on his left was Pearl Ann Clement, whose husband, Rufus, was the president of Atlanta University. Rufus Clement had been the president of the school since 1937, and he had made important gains for the historically black university.43 He also was engaged in civil rights issues, although his moderation put him at odds with W. E. B. Du Bois, also at Atlanta. Clement was the first African-American to become a member of the Atlanta school board since Reconstruction.

Another spouse at Pauling’s table was Ellen Cousins, the wife of noted writer and peace activist Norman Cousins, who was seated in the Blue Room. He and Pauling were largely kindred spirits, but they also had their disagreements. Cousins was the longtime editor of The Saturday Review, which he used to promote a liberal agenda. The two men, who supported international oversight of atomic power as well as a world federalism movement, started to correspond in the 1950s.44 In 1958 Pauling praised him “for the many fine actions that you have been taking about the great world’s problem that must be solved [radiation].” And yet, in that same letter Pauling could not resist being his blunt and opinionated self. After questioning Cousins’s wording on strontium radiation, he goes on to comment on an editorial: “I think that your discussion of radium dials of wristwatches is not very good.” He continues to chide him and then says that Cousins needs “good advice about scientific questions. I should, of course, be pleased to have you call upon me at any time.”45

The two men subsequently became friendly—both were active in the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE)—but by 1961 there was tension between them. The tension was based on whether Cousins was suitably supportive of Pauling, who was under attack for his left-leaning views from some SANE members, concerned by negative media attention. Cousins told him, “It would seem strange indeed if two men with essentially the same basic commitments should be unable to get along, or even to communicate with one another with a fair degree of understanding.”46 But that was how personal interactions often were with Pauling, a man with strong views who could make common cause with those fundamentally in agreement with him, but not quite where he wanted them to be—as was his ambivalent relationship with President Kennedy.

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