Brueckner covers in some detail his early childhood, and interest and experiments in chemistry (some quite dangerous) which led to his first decision to become a chemical engineer but which quickly changed with his increasing interest in mathematics. Brueckner also describes: his travel to Europe immediately before World War II; early mountaineering experiences; enrollment at the University of Minnesota; work in weather forecasting during World War II and completion of his B.A. in mathematics through independent study, credits at the University of Wisconsin, and Army training at Chanute Field; his return to the University of Minnesota as a graduate student in philosophy and physics after the war; marriage and move to the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked as a research assistant in the Radiation Laboratory; his work there with Robert Serber, Wolfgang Panofsky, Luis Alvarez, Ed McMillan, Emilio Segr ̌and Ernest O. Lawrence; his postdoctoral work in meson physics at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1950; effects of the McCarthy era; Red-baiting of the physics faculty at Berkeley; his position at the University of Indiana, Bloomington, and work for the Department of Defense in radar sensing with John von Neumann and Murray Gell-Mann; employment as a consultant at Los Alamos; work at Brookhaven National Laboratory; trips to the U.S.S.R. for conferences; his acceptance of an endowed chair in physics at the University of Pennsylvania and the counter offer from Edward Teller at UC Berkeley; his continued work on many-body problems and nuclear structure; and work as a consultant on classified projects.This is both a very personal autobiography and a detailed account of Brueckner's research and professional interests.