surely you're joking, mr feynman -- adventures of a curious character
this was his first book -- which shocked the book world because it was an outrageous best seller for weeks on the NYTimes list. Who would want to read a book about an obscure physicist (obscure to the general public).

from the book jacket:

"The stories in this book were collected intermittently and informally during seven years of very enjoyable drumming with RF. I have found each story by itself to be amusing, and the collection taken together to be amazing: That one person could have so many wonderfully crazy thing happen to him in one life is sometimes hard to believe. That one person could invent so much innocent mischief in one life is surely an inspiration."


Ralph Leighton -- is a high school teacher and friend --- who wrote the Feynman books from tape recordings Feynman dictated -- because Feynman didn't like to write. His father worked with Feynman - a physicist.