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This specific piece of correspondence is from Caroline Raut to Esther M. Lederberg. At the time of Esther M. Lederberg's death (November 11, 2006), there was no copy of this correspondence in her possession. Esther Lederberg requested that copies of all correspondence addressed only to her, or to both herself and Joshua Lederberg, be given to her after her divorce from Joshua Lederberg in 1966. However, the documentation was never made available to her.
Because Joshua Lederberg did not cooperate with efforts to share copies of papers and documentation after the divorce, and the Trustees of the Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg Estate never granted permission for the NLM site for Joshua Lederberg to display such communications after Esther M. Lederberg's death, it is easy to understand why the NLM did not seek Esther M. Lederberg's permission to display the letter Caroline Raut wrote to her on October 1, 1954. However, even if Esther M. Lederberg had provided a copy of this correspondence, she still could not provide copyright permission to display the correspondence on the NLM website; only Caroline Raut, as the author of this letter, could provide copyright permission. Given the several false claims on the NLM website that letters were reproduced and displayed with Esther Lederberg's permission, it is highly questionable whether the NLM's statement that Caroline Raut gave his permission to display this letter, is true. It behooves the NLM to make evidence of Karmonos Cancer Institute's permission to use Caroline Raut's October 1, 1954 letter to Esther M. Lederberg, available.
Even with the dubious copyright permission, the actual piece of correspondence was sent only to Esther Lederberg. This might explain Joshua Lederberg's admission of theft of Esther M. Lederberg's correspondence. The NLM, in displaying this document, is in collusion with Joshua Lederberg's theft of this piece of correspondence.
This specific piece of correspondence is identified on Joshua Lederberg's
NLM website as:
bbaloh.
http://profiles.NLM.NIH.gov/BB/