Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow, CBE (15 October 1905–1 July 1980) was a scientist and novelist. Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire (Military division) The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority... October 15 is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years). ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... The physicist Albert Einstein is probably the most famous scientist of our time. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ...

Life

Born in Leicester, he was educated at University College, Leicester and the University of Cambridge, where he became a Fellow of Christ's College in 1930. He was knighted in 1957 and made a life peer as Baron Snow, of the City of Leicester, in 1964. He served as an assistant to the Minister of Technology in the Labour government of Harold Wilson. Friends included mathematician G. H. Hardy, physicist P.M.S. (later Lord) Blackett and X-ray crystallographer J. D. Bernal.^[1] Leicester (pronounced ) is the largest city in the East Midlands of England. ... University of Leicester seen from Victoria Park - Left to right: the Department of Engineering, the Attenborough tower, the Charles Wilson building. ... The University of Cambridge, located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world, with a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... Full name Christs College Motto Souvent me Souvient I Often Remember Named after Christ Previous names Gods-house (1437), Christs College (1505) Established 1505 Sister College(s) Wadham College Master Prof. ... Year 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In the United Kingdom, Life Peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles may not be inherited (those whose titles are inheritable are known as hereditary peers). ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was one of the most prominent British politicians of the 20th century. ... G. H. Hardy Professor Godfrey Harold Hardy FRS (February 7, 1877 – December 1, 1947) was a prominent British mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. ... The Right Honourable Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett, OM, CH, FRS (18 November 1897–13 July 1974) was a British experimental physicist known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleomagnetism. ... John Desmond Bernal (1901–1971) was an Irish-born scientist (from Nenagh, County Tipperary), known for pioneering X-ray crystallography. ...

C.P. Snow was married to novelist Pamela Hansford Johnson. Pamela Hansford Johnson, Baroness Snow (29 May 1912–18 June 1981) was an English poet, novelist, playwright, literary and social critic. ...

Work

Snow's first novel was the whodunit Death under Sail (1932). He also wrote a biography of Anthony Trollope. A whodunit or whodunnit (for Who done it? and sometimes referred to as a Golden Age Mystery novel) is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is paramount. ... Anthony Trollope (April 24, 1815 – December 6, 1882) became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. ...

However, he is much better known as the author of a sequence of political novels entitled Strangers and Brothers depicting intellectuals in academic and government settings in the modern era. The Masters is the best known novel of the sequence and deals with the internal politics of a Cambridge college as it prepared to elect a new master. It has all the appeal of being an insider’s view and it reveals how concerns other than the strictly academic influence the decisions of supposedly objective scholars. The Masters and The New Men were jointly awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1954.^[2] The Corridors of Power added a phrase to the language of the day. A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... Strangers and Brothers is a series of novels by C.P.Snow, published between 1940 and 1974. ... Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book awards in Britain. ...

In The Realists, Snow examined the work of eight novelists: Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Benito Pérez Galdós, Henry James and Marcel Proust. He makes a robust defence of the realistic novel and is particularly astute in his judgement of James. Stendhal. ... Balzac redirects here. ... Dickens redirects here. ... Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (Russian: Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский, IPA: , sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky  ) (November 11, 1821 [O.S. October 30] – February 9, 1881 [O.S. January 28]) is considered one of the greatest Russian writers. ... Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: , Lev Nikolaevič Tolstoj), commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy (September 9, 1828 [O.S. August 28] – November 20, 1910 [O.S. November 7]) was a Russian novelist, writer, essayist, philosopher, Christian anarchist, pacifist, educational reformer, vegetarian, moral thinker and an influential member of... Pérez Galdós, detail of an oil painting by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida By courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America Benito Pérez Galdós (May 10, 1843 – January 4, 1920) was a Spanish novelist. ... For other uses of this name, see Henry James (disambiguation). ... Proust redirects here. ...

Notable views and insights

Snow is most noted for his lectures and books regarding his concept of "The Two Cultures", as developed in The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution (1959). Here he notes that the breakdown of communication between the sciences and the humanities is a major hindrance to solving the world's problems. The Two Cultures is the title of an influential 1959 lecture by British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow. ... The Two Cultures is the title of an influential 1959 lecture by British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow. ... Look up Communication in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Part of a scientific laboratory at the University of Cologne. ... The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view. ... Antarctica Oceania Africa Asia Europe North America South America Middle East Caribbean Central Asia East Asia North Asia South Asia Southeast Asia SW. Asia Australasia Melanesia Micronesia Polynesia Central America Latin America Northern America Americas C. Africa E. Africa N. Africa Southern Africa W. Africa C. Europe E. Europe N...

In particular, Snow argues that the quality of education in the world is on the decline. For example, many scientists have never read Charles Dickens, but artistic intellectuals are equally non-conversant with science. He wrote: The physicist Albert Einstein is probably the most famous scientist of our time. ... Dickens redirects here. ... An intellectual is a person who uses his or her intellect to work, study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas. ...

A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists. Once or twice I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics, law of entropy. The response was cold: it was also negative. Yet I was asking something which is about the scientific equivalent of: 'Have you read a work of Shakespeare's?'

I now believe that if I had asked an even simpler question — such as, What do you mean by mass, or acceleration, which is the scientific equivalent of saying, 'Can you read?' — not more than one in ten of the highly educated would have felt that I was speaking the same language. So the great edifice of modern physics goes up, and the majority of the cleverest people in the western world have about as much insight into it as their Neolithic ancestors would have had.

Snow's lecture aroused considerable ferment at the time of its delivery, partly because of the uncompromising style in which he stated his case. He was strongly criticised by the literary critic F. R. Leavis. The dispute even inspired a comic song on the subject of the second law of thermodynamics from Flanders and Swann. The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy. ... Shakespeare redirects here. ... Unsolved problems in physics: What causes anything to have mass? Mass is a property of a physical object that quantifies the amount of matter and energy it is equivalent to. ... Acceleration is the time rate of change of velocity, and at any point on a velocity-time graph, it is given by the slope of the tangent to that point In physics or physical science, acceleration (symbol: a) is defined as the rate of change (or derivative with respect to... Physics (from the Greek, (phúsis), nature and (phusiké), knowledge of nature) is the science concerned with the discovery and understanding of the fundamental laws which govern matter, energy, space, and time. ... The Neolithic, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionallly the. ... Frank Raymond Leavis (July 14, 1895 - April 14, 1978) was an influential British literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. ... Michael Flanders Donald Swann The British duo Flanders and Swann were the actor and singer Michael Flanders (1922–1975) and the composer, pianist and linguist Donald Swann (1923–1994) who collaborated in writing comic songs. ...

Snow wrote:

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.

Snow also took note of another divide; that between rich and poor nations. in 1930 was when the first traces of humans where discovered by cochroaches. ... Look up Obedience in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up rebellion in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Other Achievements

Blue plaque in Eaton Square, London Robert John Graham Boothby, 1st Baron Boothby, KBE (also known as Bob Boothby) (12 February 1900 – 16 July 1986) was a Conservative politician. ... The position of Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews is elected every three years by the students at the University of St Andrews. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Sir John Knewstub Maurice Rothenstein CBE (1901–1992) was an English art historian. ...

See also

• John Brockman
• Carl Sagan
• The Third Culture
• Alvin Toffler
• Edward O. Wilson

John Brockman (born 1941 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a literary agent and author specializing in scientific literature. ... Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, astrobiologist, and highly successful science popularizer. ... The Third Culture is the title of a book by John Brockman which discusses the work of several well-known thinkers who are directly communicating their new, sometimes provocative, ideas to the general public. ... Alvin Toffler Alvin Toffler (born October 3, 1928) is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communications revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity. ... E.O. Wilson with Dynastes hercules E. O. Wilson, or Edward Osborne Wilson, (born June 10, 1929) is an entomologist and biologist known for his work on ecology, evolution, and sociobiology. ...

Works

Fiction

Strangers and Brothers Sequence

• Time of Hope, 1949
• George Passant (first published as Strangers and Brothers), 1940
• The Conscience of the Rich, 1958
• The Light and the Dark, 1947
• The Masters, 1951
• The New Men, 1954
• Homecomings, 1956
• The Affair, 1959
• The Corridors of Power, 1963
• The Sleep of Reason, 1968
• Last Things, 1970

The second of C. P. Snows series of novels Strangers and Brothers. George Passant is a solicitor in a small English town, whose idealism and eccentricity lead him to accumulate a group of young followers in a mentor-esque capacity. ... The Light and the Dark is the fourth novel in C.P. Snows Strangers and Brothers series. ... The Corridors of Power (1964) is the ninth book in C.P. Snows Strangers and Brothers series. ...

Other Fiction

• Death Under Sail, 1932
• The Search, 1934
• The Malcontents, 1972
• In Their Wisdom, 1974
• A Coat of Varnish, 1979

Non-fiction

• Science and Government, 1961
• The two cultures and a second look, 1963
• Variety of men, 1967
• The State of Siege, 1968
• Public Affairs, 1971
• Trollope, 1975
• The Realists, 1978
• The Physicists, 1981

References

1. ^ Snow P (2006) C. P. Snow Christ's College Magazine 231, 67–9
2. ^ The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes: The Prize Winners

External link

• Web sites relating to the Snow-Leavis Controversy