The Light and the Dark

C. P. Snow was born on October 15, 1905 in Leicester, England. He graduated from Leicester University and received a doctorate in physics at the University of Cambridge. After working at Cambridge in molecular physics for about 20 years, he became a university administrator. During World War II, he was a scientific adviser to the British government. He was knighted in 1957 and created a Baron in the life peerage in 1964. He wrote an 11-volume novel sequence collectively called Strangers and Brothers, which was published between 1940 and 1970. His other works of fiction include Death Under Sail, In Their Wisdom, and A Coat of Varnish. He also wrote several non-fiction works including The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, Public Affairs, Trollope: His Life and Art, and The Realists: Eight Portraits. He died on July 1, 1980 at the age of 74.