On April 11, 1987, the Italian chemist and author Primo Levi was found dead in his apartment building in Turin. Reportedly depressed over worldwide violence, his deteriorating health, and a case of writer’s block, he apparently threw himself down the stairwell of his building. A survivor of Auschwitz, Levi had written a series of works, including The Periodic Table (Schochen Books, 1984), that intermingled stories of his captivity with metaphysical reflections (see THE SCIENTIST, May 18,

"The fact [is] that I, a chemist, engaged here in writing my stories about chemistry, have lived a different season." For Primo Levi that "different season" was a place called Auschwitz. An assimilated Italian Jew, Levi quit his job at a pharmaceutical factory, joined a band of anti-fascist partisans, was betrayed and captured. At Auschwitz, he was skilled prisoner 17451Z forced to work in a chemical lab adjacent to the Nazi death camp. In 1947 he began writing a series of autobiographical work