BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 



And about Madison: 'My lecture on metabolism and redox poten- 

 tial did not seem to be much appreciated ; I think that they found this 

 rather "old hat". Besides, my imperfect English improvisation in an 

 enormous hall - 200 in the audience, 1,000 seats! - will probably 

 have contributed to the lukewarm reception.' 



From another letter : 'The danger here is that they appear to know 

 the Delft theses even better than I ; I had forgotten quite a bit from the 

 older ones. Here they work a lot with Dutch-English dictionaries, and 

 some masterpieces are available in English translation - a precious 

 possession that is not accessible to everybody . . . For the rest, "A 

 prophet is not without honour, save in his own country", and for my 

 American fame it would have been much better if I had remained be- 

 hind the scenes. Here and there I could notice disappointment with 

 my unassuming appearance, already on first acquaintance', as he wrote 

 to his friend, Van Rossem. 



At the time of Kluyver's first American visit the depression was still 

 very much in evidence there. Discussing the economy drive, then also 

 raging in Delft, Kluyver wrote, for example: 'In the U.S. the situation 

 is perhaps even worse because there are so many privately endowed 

 universities. In San Francisco they have recently buried "John Depres- 

 sion", oh simple minds ! More important is the fact that the price of 

 hogs has risen, and that this has caused an upswing on the stock ex- 

 change. May this reversal in trend be permanent!' 



As appears from his letters, Kluyver was greatly impressed by the 

 vigour of the Americans, particularly in the area of scientific investiga- 

 tion. Presumably the respect was mutual; for before his return to Delft 

 Iowa State College conferred upon him the honorary D. Sc. degree. 



During his sojourn in the U.S. heavy demands were made upon 

 him; his program was always loaded. Here follows a summary of a 

 'few days' activities, literally quoted from his letter of June 4, 1932: 

 'Lecture from 11 to 12; immediately by car to Rockford, a trip that 

 lasted till 10 p.m.; early Tuesday on to Milwaukee, visited the acti- 

 vated sludge plant; that evening a lecture before the local division of 

 the American Chemical Society; early Wednesday on to Madison; 

 visited many laboratories during the day, and had lunch and dinner 

 with the "greats" (Overton and Steenbock) ; evening lecture before 

 the Wisconsin Chapter of the Amer. Chem. Soc. ; Thursday, early 

 breakfast, back by car to Ames, return 6 p.m., seminar at 7.30; Fri- 



30 



