Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Rather than a traditional autobiography, the book is a curated collection of oral histories. Richard Feynman’s close friend and drumming partner, Ralph Leighton, recorded their conversations over several years. This process preserved Feynman’s distinctive, irreverent speaking voice, turning a series of "reminiscences" into a national bestseller published in 1985.

The book’s title itself serves as a punchline to academic formality. It captures a moment from Feynman’s time at Princeton University when a hostess, shocked that he requested both cream and lemon in his tea (a combination that curdles), exclaimed the titular phrase. The anecdote sets the tone for a man who constantly found himself at odds with social and institutional pretension.

The memoirs oscillate between the profound and the playful. In one chapter, Feynman describes "Monster Minds"—his experience presenting graduate work to the intimidating gauntlet of Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, and John von Neumann. In others, he is obsessively mastering safe-cracking at Los Alamos or learning to play samba music in Brazil.

While the tone is often lighthearted, the book anchors itself in significant historical moments. It documents Feynman's work on the Manhattan Project during World War II, a period of intense scientific pressure shadowed by the personal tragedy of his first wife, Arline, dying of tuberculosis. This juxtaposition defines the book: a life lived with equal parts intellectual rigors and eccentric whimsy.

The book’s final chapter, adapted from a 1974 Caltech commencement address, offers a biting critique of "pseudo-science." Feynman compares dishonest researchers to South Pacific islanders who, after WWII, built mock airstrips and wooden headphones to "conjure" the cargo planes that had once brought supplies. They followed the form perfectly, but the planes never landed.

Feynman argued that many researchers—particularly in the social sciences—adopt the superficial appearances of scientific investigation (like complex jargon and data) but lack the "utter honesty" to report their own weaknesses. To Feynman, science is not a set of tools, but a self-critical attitude where the researcher must work twice as hard to prove themselves wrong.

The book was a surprise hit that spawned a sequel, What Do You Care What Other People Think?, and remains a staple of science communication. However, it also sparked friction within the scientific community. Fellow Nobelist Murray Gell-Mann threatened to sue over his portrayal in the book, leading to corrections in later editions regarding their collaborative work.

Modern reception of the book is often tempered by Feynman’s own accounts of his behavior toward women. In the chapter "You Just Ask Them?", he describes using insults to pick up women at bars. While Feynman noted this behavior was not typical for him, the inclusion of these stories has led to ongoing debate about his character and the culture of physics during his era.