Crystallography Books

Books listed in ' Crystallography News'


last updated 25 February 2003
All book reviews now in another file where they are listed in 2 ways:

CD-Reviews are on another page.

On this page there is a list of books mentioned in 'Crystallography News' and a Book List containing books for crystallographers of all kinds from beginners to specialists, with a section on techniques and biographies, including crystallographers in fiction.
links to on-line bookshops are listed at the end of this page.

Books Mentioned in chronological order

Book List

This list is divided into the following sections: Initials of those suggesting the books are given at the end of each entry, their full names are :

Popular Crystallography

These books are intended for school children and the general public who are not yet crystallographers.
  1. Crystals Ian F.Mercer Natural History Museum Publications p59 (MM)
  2. Crystals and Crystal Growing Holden and Morrison MIT Press ISBN 0-262-58050-0 (pbk) 10th printing 1995 Has some useful explanations, as well as descriptions of amusing projects to grow crystals (KMC)
  3. Crystals and Light. An Introduction to Optical Crystallography Elizabeth A. Wood Dover Publications ISBN 0 486 233431 2 (KMC)
  4. The Structures of Crystals. A.M.Glazer Adam Hilger 1987 only 55 pages, a simple introduction ISBN 0 85274 826 6 (KMC)
  5. Books about the discovery of the DNA double helix are listed elsewhere

Introductory Crystallography

These books are mostly at the undergraduate level, but can be useful to enthusiasts with little formal training.
  1. Crystallography and its applications. L.S.Dent Glasser Van Nostrand Reinhold ISBN 0 442 30136 7 Good explanations with a minimum of mathematics, intended for chemists (KMC)
  2. Introduction to Crystallography. C.Hammond (2nd edition 1992) OUP ISBN 0-19-856433-3 130 Pages good introduction for first year undergraduates(KMC)
  3. An Introduction to Crystallography. F.C.Phillips, Longmans 1st Pub 1946 clear explanation of mathematics involved, but may be out of print (KMC
  4. An Introduction to X-ray Crystallography. M.M.Woolfson Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 42359 7 �24.95 paperback �65 hardback 432p 2nd edition published Oct 96(??)
  5. Outline of Crystallography for Biologists David Blow Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-851051-9 pub. 2002 �25 (paperback) 246 pages size 240mm x 168mm

Collected Works and Biographies

The current work of the National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists (NUCARCS) for crystallographers are listed on page 52 of the December issue of 'Crystallography News'. They have catalogued the papers of:

Collected Works and Biographies

  1. J.D.Bernal
  2. Rosalind Franklin
  3. Dorothy Hodgkin
  4. P.Ewald and his Dynamical Theory of X-ray Diffraction, 192 pages, 25 halftones, 56 line drawings A memorial volume, forming a survey of Ewald's life, scientific work and role in the international crystallographic community. Reviewed in Acta Cryst (1994) A50, 409-410 (DWC)

Crystallographers in Fiction

I have only found one so far.

Crystallographic Techniques and historical reviews

These are ordered chronolically by publication date
  1. Time-Resolved macromolecular Crystallography. Proceedings of a Royal Society Discussion meeting held on 29 - 30 January 1992 172 pages, 2 colour plates, numerous halftones and diagrams. (DWC)
  2. P.Ewald and his Dynamical Theory of X-ray Diffraction, 192 pages, 25 halftones, 56 line drawings A memorial volume, forming a survey of Ewald's life, scientific work and role in the international crystallographic community. Reviewed in Acta Cryst (1994) A50, 409-410 (DWC)
  3. The Rietveld Method ed. R.A. Young IUC monograph no 5, OUP 1995 308 pages ISBN 0-19-855912-7 paperback �22.95 (KDR)
  4. Solid State Structure Analysis by William Cochran chapter 6 p421-520 of Volume 1 of 'Twentieth Century Physics' published in 3 volumes hardback by IoP publishing and the AIP Press 1995. This is a comprehensive overview of crystallography in the 20th century, unfortunately, the 3 volume set is very expensive.
  5. Introduction to X-ray Powder Diffractometry a practical guide
  6. High-pressure Techniques in Chemistry and Physics, A Practical Approach
  7. Crystallography Across the Sciences a celebration of 50 years of Acta Cryst and the IUCr editor Henk Schenk, price $25 a special commemmrative issue of Acta Cryst Section A Section 1, November 1998
  8. From the Oxford University Press in 2001
  9. From the Oxford University Press in 2002

Minerals

  1. Dorling Kindersley series all same title 'Rocks and Minerals' Eyewitness handbook, Chris Pellett, Pockets D&K (small size) Nice coloured pictures but few explanations (MP)
  2. An Introduction to Mineralogy for Geologists, Phillips and Phillips John Wiley, ISBN 0471 277959 (pbk) Some explanations. (MP)
  3. Mineral Recognition, Vanders and Kerr, John Wiley pub 1967 Library of congress catalogue Card 6625223 has nice explanations on how crystals grow, but is out of print (MP)
  4. Manual of Mineralogy. Hurlbut and Klein, John Wiley ISBN 0-471-03288-3 500 pages descriptions of minerals with useful explanations of crystal projections (MP)

On-line Bookshops

Crystallography books, including the IUCr teaching pamphlets, can be obtained from
The Polycrystal Book Service,
895 Martin Raod SW,
Huntsville,
Alabama,
AL 35824,
USA

Tel:(01) 256 461-002 from outside the USA, otherwise leave off the (01)
email: [email protected] website: http://www.polycbs.com
Payment may be by credit card, they accept VISA, MasterCard and American Express for payment or you may fax your account numbers to (01) 256-461-4224.
They charge $75.00 for the set of the first 20 IUCr teaching pamphlets. Later ones are only obtainable from the IUCr website; No 21 is available in several languages in addition to English.

More general book shops

Listing here is not necessarily a reccommendation, nor are they specialists in crystallography books. I have not tried these shops myself, I would be grateful for members opinions on them, or suggestions for others to add to the list.

If you have any comments on these pages please address them to the
BCA Education page WebMaster [email protected]
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