July 1, 1980

C. P. Snow (October 15, 1905 to July 1, 1980) was an English physicist and novelist who also worked in  the government. In fact the phrase "Corridors of Power," comes from the title of one of his novels (1964). He used his personal experience in academe to write novels which portray the life of intellectuals. In these novels Snow gathered the loose ends of certain cultural assumptions and presented the idea of two cultures, a scientific culture and another a parallel group honoring more the values of the humanities. The distinction of "two cultures" seemed startling at the time, and may turn out to be the verbal creation for which Snow is best remembered.

Snow married Pamela Hansford Johnson, in 1950. She also wrote novels, and they shared a fondness for cats. He was knighted and later (1964) made what the British call a 'life peer', which means he was properly addressed as Baron Snow of the City of Leicester. And in these cases the honoree gets to design his own coat of arms. Katharine M. Rogers, in her book, The Cat and the Human Imagination: Feline Images from Bast to Garfield (2001) writes:

Coats of arms are adorned with lions and stags, horses and hounds, even hedgehogs and rats; but the only cats in heraldry are wild cats. [That is, until 1964 when cats made] their appearance [as]... CP Snow became Baron Snow..."

C. P. Snow put Siamese cats as an heraldic device on his coat of arms.