The Scientist Is Gone, but Not His Book Tour

"It is a problem that might have puzzled the great physicist himself: how to conduct an author tour when the author is, well, not exactly available. The author and physicist in this case are one and the same: Richard P. Feynman, the Nobel Prize laureate who, next to Albert Einstein, is one of the world's most recognizable scientists and one of the few whose written works have consistently made the best-seller lists. His memoirs of his days with the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos and his lucid explanations of the mysteries of quantum electrodynamics have long appealed to readers beyond the pocket-protector set. But even Feynman's publisher, Basic Books, acknowledges that it is taking a risk this month in publishing "Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman," a collection of previously uncirculated personal letters. "We want to see a national best seller here," said David Steinberger, president and chief executive of Perseus Books Group, the parent of Basic Books. "That is a challenge when you're talking about letters from a dead guy." Feynman, whose telegenic presence made him a sought-after speaker, was always his own best advertisement. But his death in 1988 made an author tour to promote the new book problematic, at best."