Crawford, Deborah. Lise Meitner, Atomic Pioneer. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1969.

Crawford chronologically conveys Lise Meitner’s scientific experience and Meitner’s reflections on the "current world" following her "retirement." This piece of literature is definitely geared toward a younger and less scholarly audience, but contains a hard to locate radio transcript that makes it worthwhile. The transcript that Crawford has included is that of Meitner and Eleanor Roosevelt following the bombing of Hiroshima. While the radio transcript does not give very much insight into Meitner’s scientific accomplishments, it does show her personal contentions toward the atomic bomb.

Crawford, Elisabeth, Ruth Lewin Sime, and Mark Walker. "A Nobel Tale of Postwar Injustice." Physics Today 50, no. 9 (September 1997): 26-32.

Crawford, Sime, and Walker, all collegiate instructors present evidence that makes Meitner’s exclusion from the Nobel Prize a question for further research. This team of scholars has extensively researched Meitner and the issuance of Nobel Prizes and the resulting evidence yields that there are many flaws in the Nobel Prize decision process. Crawford, Sime, and Walker talk primarily about the difficulty in evaluating an interdisciplinary discovery, a lack of expertise in theoretical physics, Sweden’s scientific and political isolation during the war, and a general failure of the evaluation committees to appreciate the extent to which German persecution of Jews skewed the published scientific record. (26) Though the paper concentrates on Meitner, it shows both sides of the story behind Hahn receiving the Nobel Prize and why although recommendations were made in later years that Frisch and Meitner receive a Nobel Prize, these efforts also failed.

Curie, Eve. Madame Curie: A Biography. Translated by Vincent Sheean. New York: The Literary Guild of America, Inc., 1937.

Eve Curie has illustrated her mother, Marie Curie, by documenting her childhood growing up in Paris, the use of photographs, and no less including the detailed analysis of Marie Curie through her mother’s own records and letters. Eve’s retrospective account of her mother allows the reader greater access to the personalized introduction to Marie Curie because a first hand approach is being recounted. Although this biography is used in its translated version, it has closeness to Curie that only a personalized relationship could recount of another’s life. With Eve being a writer by profession, this biography heralds her abilities. While Eve’s biographical sketch of her mother is not a work of scholarly prose, it is a vivid representation of literary art.

Goldstein, Gary R. "Patricia Rife. Lise Meitner and the Dawn of the Nuclear Age." Peace & Change 26, no. 1 (January 2001): 95-105.

Goldstein discusses Lise Meitner as a "remarkable nuclear physicist." Throughout this article, Meitner is described as a extraordinary person, willing to pursue physics despite the personal sacrifices that she encountered as well as those she made. Goldstein also evokes the authority that society has in "blaming" scientists for their discoveries, citing that in a sense, science would come to a complete halt if scientists were unable to pursue the unknown out of curiosity seeing as those have been the moments when some of the most momentous discoveries have arisen.

Higonnet, Margaret Randolph, Jane Jenson, Sonya Michel, and Margaret Collins Weitz, eds. Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.

Behind the Lines analyzes the contributions of men and women to the two world wars making an emphasis on the role of gender in regards to their experiences. The essays span a realm of topics from industrial division of labor to the writings by women during this period. As an overall analysis of the time and women’s position within society, this book contains a wealth of information written in a very scholarly fashion.

McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch. Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles and Momentous Discoveries, 2d ed. Secaucus: A Citadel Press Book, 1998.

McGrayne seeks to answer the question, "Why so few women?" (xi) This single inquisition as to why "only three percent of all Nobel Prize scientists are women" guides the books examination of fifteen women who were either recipients of a Nobel Prize or offered evidential research that contributed to another person’s winning of the prize. (3) The chapter that McGrayne devotes to Marie Curie begins in fury as the Parisian press condemns Curie as a "husband stealer." This introduction clearly lays out McGrayne’s notion to set the record straight, clearing up the fact that this was insignificant compared to the vast intellect that Curie contributed to the scientific community. McGrayne introduces Meitner from a similar perspective. Meitner’s biography begins, "Using a private entrance," leading the way for McGrayne to rescue Meitner’s compromising position.

Pycior, Helena M., Nancy G. Slack, and Pnina G. Abir-Am, eds. Creative Couples in the Sciences. Lives of Women in Science. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996.

Creative Couples in the Sciences takes a look at scientists who married other scientists and how for the majority, it was to each partner’s benefit. Marie and Pierre Curie are discussed in the first section of the book, "Peaks of Collaborative Success: The Nobelist Couples," which highlights the achievements of couples who by way of their partnership, cohabitation and scientific, were give the prestigious award of a Nobel Prize. While the Curies are discussed primarily surrounding their winning of the Nobel Prize, they are also described by their personal influences that resulted in positive outcomes as a pair. This collection of essays is a great introduction to some of the greatest scientists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Quinn, Susan. Marie Curie: A Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Quinn provides in-depth analysis of Marie Curie’s life experiences alongside her scientific achievements. Through thorough descriptions, the reader experiences the extraordinary scientific greatness of Curie. Additionally, an insight is granted into previously unreleased documents of Curie’s life including letters between Curie and her husband and fellow scientist, Pierre Curie.

Reid, Robert. Marie Curie. New York: Saturday Review Press/E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1974.

Provided here is a general biography of Marie Curie. Reid does not dig into the information that he is relaying in order to provoke an opinionated response as to Curie’s significance. This is probably largely because Reid is a television science advisor and when working with such a large audience must maintain a mutual balance. While Reid’s biography of Marie Curie provides a general outline of her life, other sources need to be sought out when digging for details.

Shearer, Benjamin F., and Barbara S. Shearer, eds. Notable Women in the Physical Sciences: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997.

Shearer and Shearer have compiled an extensive range of biographies on distinguished female scientists. Included in this selection are the synopsized biographies of Marie Curie and Lise Meitner. Each of these chapters includes the pertinent accomplishments of Curie and Meitner and although brief, provides a great basis for further research.

Sime, Ruth Lewin. Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

Sime’s love of the sciences and passionate feminist demeanor were influential in her writing, Lise Meitner. The author, a Professor of Chemistry at Sacramento City College, directly confronts the perpetuating trend that historiography has lent to dismissing the works of female scientists. Sime confers that the reason women have lacked equal representation in comparison to their male counterparts of equal success is due to the traditional approach of excluding women based on the "historiographic threshold" that women "fall below." (Page viii) Furthermore, this dismissal of key female scientists is definitive of what Robert K. Merton’s "Matthew effect" suggests, "that honors are heaped on an already-famous honoree because doing so benefits the honorers. A corollary … is that the inordinate attention paid to one person detracts from the other." (Page 368) Sime uses a historiographical approach in dealing with the reasons why Meitner was faced with exclusion from mainstream society despite her contributions.

Yount, Lisa. Twentieth-Century Women Scientists. Global Profiles. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1996.

Yount’s profile of ten women science greats is vvery enlivening. A concurrent theme of each scientist included is their unwavering seld confidence, courage, and unyielding perseverance despite the challenges that they faced. Yount included Lise Meitner in this collection, where she focuses on Meitner’s simplistic view of scientific research, the view that it was "for the good of humanity." During the chapter detailing the triumphs of Meitner, Yount discusses Meitner’s complete shock in discovering that her knowledge of Nuclear Fission had been used in developing the atomic bomb and ultimately the deaths of thousands. Although Yount is a professional writer, in addition to her fluid prose, Yount adds extensive bibliographic information, which emphasizes the value to which it can be held.