REMEMBERING MADAME CURIE

by Paula Gail Benson

When I was growing up, my mother, a schoolteacher, and I spent summers with her family. (My father joined us if his work permitted.) One of Mom’s sisters subscribed to the Readers Digest condensed books series and gave me a volume that contained Eve Curie’s biography of her mother, Marie. Madame Curie made a lasting impression upon me, both as the story of a woman driven to obtain an education and as a daughter’s tribute.

Pierre and Marie Curie
Wikipedia

I clearly remember reading about Marie becoming so consumed by her studies in Paris that she forgot to eat, except maybe some cherries. Her compulsion was discovered when she fainted while with companions and her sister quickly acted to restore Marie’s health. I must admit, I have never been so obsessed with studying that I forgot to eat; however, I’ve been fortunate. I’ve always been able to go to school. In Poland, where Marie grew up, women were not allowed in institutions of higher education. She attended a clandestine “Floating University.”

Also, I remember the unfortunate circumstances by which Pierre Curie died—being struck by a horse-drawn vehicle as he crossed the street and his skull being crushed by a wheel. His death devastated Marie. When she was offered his professorial position, she addressed the first class beginning with the sentence he had last spoken.

This week, I watched the movie Madame Curie that was based on Eve Curie’s biography and starred Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. I recognized glimpses of what I remembered from the book, but I also noticed a few Hollywood touches, particularly romantic elements to appeal to an audience.

What the book did not tell was a relationship Marie had with a fellow scientist, Paul Langevin, after Pierre’s death. According to Wikipedia, Langevin was a married man who was estranged from his wife. The press portrayed Marie as a “foreign Jewish homewrecker” (her family was not Jewish). The news of the affair broke while she was away at a conference. She arrived home to find an angry mob at her door and, with her daughters, had to take refuge in a friend’s house.

Additionally, I learned that Pierre and Marie initially were buried with his family, then later, to honor their achievements, they were exhumed and interred in the Paris Pantheon. Because of their exposure to radium, their remains were encased in lead-lined coffins. According to Wikipedia, Marie Curie’s papers, including her cookbooks, also have been contaminated by radioactivity. Those wishing to consult them must wear protective clothing.

Eve Curie
Wikipedia

I looked up information about Eve Curie and found she was the member of her family who was not scientifically inclined. Instead, she gravitated toward literature and the arts. Her husband became the Executive Director of UNICEF and she was known as UNICEF’s first lady. According to Eve Curie’s Wikipedia article:  “She sometimes joked that she brought shame on her family. ‘There were five Nobel Prizes in my family’, she joked, ‘two for my mother, one for my father, one for [my] sister and brother-in-law and one for my husband. Only I was not successful.’”

I would disagree. Eve Curie’s words have been an important part of educating people about her mother’s legacy.