Catalogue description REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS (Bibliog. 391).

A.1084-A.1103 Complete or extended drafts.

A.1104-A.1233 Drafts by chapter

A.1234-A.1259 Notes and ideas

A.1260-A.1266 Jotters

A.1267-A.1276 Correspondence

A.1277 Reviews

A.1278 Background material.

After twenty years gestation Krebs's autobiography Reminiscences and Reflections (in collaboration with Anne Martin) was published by the Clarendon Press Oxford in 1981. Krebs was able to see a copy of the published work during his last illness.

Krebs's thinking on the writing of autobiographies in general and his own in particular can be gleaned from the Preface as published and the various drafts for the preface which he essayed over the years, the earliest being dated in January 1968 (A.1104-A.1106). It appears that it was the invitation in 1960 from the Biochemical Society to deliver the Annual Lecture in memory of Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins which intiated the auto-biographical reflection and writing culminating in the publication of Reminiscences and Reflections. In his lecture Krebs included a final section of personal recollections which was very well received by his audience and the readers of the published version, who encouraged him to write more extensively about his experiences. See H. 150 for draft of the lecture.

A further spur to Krebs's thinking in this direction was a request from the Royal Society (made to every Fellow) to supply biographical material for later use by his memorialist, and he appears to have been assembling material and drafting autobiographical notes for this purpose during the early and mid 1960s. (See e.g. A.1067, A.1068, A.1071).

It seems likely also that further recollections were encouraged by the 'Thank-You Britain' Fund appeal (organised by former refugees) which was going forward at about the same time.

Krebs's retirement from his Oxford Chair in 1967 seems to have coincided with approaches for autobiographical accounts from one or more Italian publishers and it is in this connection that the tittle 'Reminscences and Reflections' first appears Colleagues who were shown Krebs's English drafts encouraged him to write at greater length about his life but Krebs's response was to put together for publication a collection of documents from his files - 'those that had been important in influencing the course of my professional life and those that reflected more personal aspects, such as letters, announcements, and published articles' (Rem. & Refl., v). For examples of drafts from this period which are essentially compilations of documents with Krebs's comments see A.1086-A.1091. It was material of this sort with which Krebs approached the Oxford University Oress in 1969. Krebs notes in the Preface to the published autobiography that he had always retained documents. At some point (perhaps in the 1960s) he had complied two scrapbooks (now at A.27, A.28) entitled 'Documents from the Life of a Scientist' I and II, containing some of the most important surviving records of his career and honours. It is highly probable that these compilations were intended to serve instead of an autobiography; indeed, there is a striking correspondence between the drafts at A.1086-A.1091 and the scrapbook at A.27 which deals with Krebs's early career.

When Krebs showed his autobiographical material to the Oxford University Press, they requested a considerable expansion to provide a fuller account of his personal life. Initially, Krebs had reservations about this request, thinking 'that the documents would speak for themselves, illustrating how the social and political history of the times was reflected in the career of an individual scientist. Among other things they showed how the recognition of research expresses itself, how the rise of Nazism temporarily upset my career, and how British scientists and the Rockefeller Foundation came to my rescue; and how, later on, I became involved in wider issues'. Nevertheless, with the encouragement of friends and colleagues, he acceded to the request of the Press and undertook to write a full-scale autobiography.

The surviving material is very extensive, and the succession of heavily-revised drafts, some dated as late as 1980, suggest that Krebs did not find the task an easy one. (See G.233-G.238.)

(see A.1084).

He sought the advice of colleagues and friends, including Catherine Weber, whose husband George was the organiser of the Indianapolis Symposia on advances in enzyme regulation which Krebs attended almost annually 1962-77. However, the decisive step in producing a publishable text seems to have been the appointment of A.V. Martin as Krebs's secretary in 1978. Mrs. Martin took on the role of collaborator, and in the extensive redrafting which was then undertaken and in the surviving exchanges of correspondence, Krebs's respect for her ability and judgment is manifest. Of particular interest in this regard is the draft 'AVM copy 1977' which appears to be the draft as prepared by Krebs before Mrs. Martin's appointment and which bears her first (extensive) revisions. This draft, which ends with the award of the Nobel Prize in 1953, represents Krebs's original intention to end his autobiography at this point. However, he was encouraged to extend it by others, including his collaborator, who bore the principal responsibility for preparing the later chapters, especially the important 'Oxford' chapter.