A Russian Childhood

In the year 1889 Sofya Vasilievna Kovalevskaya Profes­ sor of Mathematics at the University of Stockholm pub­ lished her recollections of growing up in mid-nineteenth century Russia. Professor Kovalevskaya was already an international celebrity and partly for the wrong reasons: less as the distinguished mathematician she actually was than as a mathematical lady-a bizarre but fascinating phenomenon.* Her book was an immediate success. She had written it in Russian but its first publication was a translation into Swedish the language of her adopted homeland where it appeared thinly disguised as a novel under the title From Russian Ltfe: the Rajevski Sisters (Sonja Kovalevsky. Ur ryska lifvet. Systrarna Rajevski. Heggstrom 1889). In the following year the book came out in Russia in two *My gifted Mathematical Assistant Mr. Hammond exclaimed ... Why this is the first handsome mathematical lady I have ever seen! Letter to S. V. Kovalevskaya from].]. Sylvester Professor of Mathe­ matics New College Oxford Dec. 25 1886.