American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Content Warning: This section discusses death by suicide.

A biographer and columnist who has written extensively on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Kai Bird joined the American Prometheus project shortly after he finished writing another foreign policy-themed biography, The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy: Brothers in Arms (2000). As Sherwin explains in the Author’s Note and Acknowledgements section, “Oppenheimer was big enough for both of us and I knew my pace would be quicker with Kai as my partner” (594). The Bird-Sherwin partnership saw the project through to publication, though it took another five years. During that time, in gathering information for the book, Bird conducted nearly two dozen interviews to supplement the dozens of interviews Sherwin had already completed.

A historian of the Cold War with a special focus on nuclear weapons, Martin Sherwin signed the original contract for the book that became American Prometheus in 1979. Immediately thereafter, Sherwin visited New Mexico to get a sense of the physical environment that had enchanted Oppenheimer and kept him coming back summer after summer. In addition, Sherwin spoke with Oppenheimer’s son, Peter. In the ensuing years, Sherwin conducted most of the interviews for the book.