THE life of Madame Curie has been written by her daughter with a charm and beauty never surpassed. It is therefore with the deepest humility that I have ventured to make out of that lovely book a shorter tale for young people.
People ought not to wait till they are over sixteen to make the acquaintance of the greatest and most delightful human beings and to hear of the world’s greatest deeds. Yet complete biographies are necessarily lengthy and are often written in words familiar only to those of much experience and many years.
I hope therefore that The Radium Woman and Robert Gibbings’s beautiful woodcuts may help the younger members of a family to share the keen delight that their elders are taking in the life of Madame Curie and that it will promptthem to vow: “We will not let ourselves be deprived of a word or a hint concerning that wonderful woman. We will also read Eve Curie’s Madame Curie.”