Journey Through Genius

<b>Like masterpieces of art music and literature great mathematical theorems are creative milestones works of genius destined to last forever. Now William Dunham gives them the attention they deserve.</b> <p/>Dunham places each theorem within its historical context and explores the very human and often turbulent life of the creator -- from Archimedes the absentminded theoretician whose absorption in his work often precluded eating or bathing to Gerolamo Cardano the sixteenth-century mathematician whose accomplishments flourished despite a bizarre array of misadventures to the paranoid genius of modern times Georg Cantor. He also provides step-by-step proofs for the theorems each easily accessible to readers with no more than a knowledge of high school mathematics. A rare combination of the historical biographical and mathematical <i>Journey Through Genius</i> is a fascinating introduction to a neglected field of human creativity. <p/>It is mathematics presented as a series of works of art; a fascinating lingering over individual examples of ingenuity and insight. It is mathematics by lightning flash. --Isaac Asimov