Includes index.

Publications by F.A. Cotton: pages 361-487.

Print version record.

Front Cover; My Life in the Golden Age ofChemistry: More Fun Than Fun; Copyright; Dedication; Table of Contents; Foreword; Prologue; To the Reader; Acknowledgements; Chapter 1: Philadelphia; High School (Jr. and Sr.) Years; College Days; Chapter 2: Harvard Years; A Summer at Los Alamos, 1952; The Pace of Research Quickens; My First Trip to Europe; Back to Harvard; Chapter 3: MIT 1955-60; Chapter 4: MIT 1961-71; The Sporting Life: Horses and Hounds; A Visit to Argentina; A Pleasant Sojourn in New York City; Calm Before the Storm; Goodbye to MIT; Chapter 5: MIT 1961-71: Mostly About Science.

The Discovery of the Quadruple BondInfrared Spectra of Metal Carbonyls; Fluxional Organometallic Molecules; An Enzyme Structure -- Staph Nuclease; Chapter 6: Yee Ha! Off to Texas; The Discovery of Agostic Interactions; More Metal-Metal Multiple Bonds; Collaboration with Malcolm Chisholm; The Rise and Decline of the Crystal Structure Industry; My First Visit to Israel and the Chemistry It Led To; My Adventure in Iran; The French Connection(s); A Meeting in Southern Bavaria; Chapter 7: Good Times in the 1980s; A Fiasco of My Own Making; The National Medal of Science; The National Science Board.

The Superconducting SupercolliderChapter 8: From 1990 to the End of the Millennium; Other Activities During the 1990s; Chapter 9: The New Millenium; Chapter 10: More About People; Meeting Famous People; Secretaries; Jack Lewis; Earl Muetterties; Geoffrey Wilkinson; Derek Barton; Rick Adams; Carlos Murillo; Larry Falvello; Achim M�uller; Herbert Roesky; Wolfgang Herrmann; Joseph Chatt; Fausto Calderazzo; Chapter 11: A Concluding Miscellany; Writing Books; Industrial Consulting; Changing Times at Texas A & M University; Animals; Some Recollections of Travel; Foreign Students; Three Golden Rules.

EpilogueAppendices; Appendix A: Ph. D. Students; Appendix B: Postdoctorals; Appendix C: Visitors; Appendix D: Priestly Lecture, 1998: Science Today -- What Follows The Golden Age; Appendix E: Publications; Appendix F: Some Former Ph. D. Students; Index.

A giant in the field and at times a polarizing figure, F. Albert Cotton's contributions to inorganic chemistry and the area of transitions metals are substantial and undeniable. In his own words, My Life in the Golden Age of Chemistry: More Fun than Fun describes the late chemist's early life and college years in Philadelphia, his graduate training and research contributions at Harvard with Geoffrey Wilkinson, and his academic career from becoming the youngest ever full professor at MIT (aged 31) to his extensive time at Texas A & M. Professor Cotton's autobiography offers his unique perspectiv.