“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” by Richard P. Feynman

Description

First published in 1985, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! is a witty and wide-ranging collection of anecdotes from the life of Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard P. Feynman. Compiled primarily by Feynman’s friend Ralph Leighton, the book presents a series of loosely connected, first-person recollections drawn from taped conversations. In a refreshingly informal style, Feynman recounts experiences that range from his early youth and his work on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos to his numerous escapades outside academia—safecracking, samba playing, art, and social pranks. Rather than focusing on his scientific breakthroughs, the book highlights Feynman’s insatiable curiosity and playful approach to learning.

The title arises from a story in which Feynman, as a graduate student, was invited to a tea party with faculty wives at Princeton. Mistaking Feynman for the serving staff, an older hostess asked him to pour cream. When he responded with mischievous humor, she exclaimed, “Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman!”—capturing the everyday irreverence that shapes his persona. The text spans short vignettes, each revealing a facet of Feynman’s personality: his disregard for pretension, love of puzzles, readiness to defy convention, and abiding sense of fun.