Beautiful Soul (Nash's Biography) (Volumes 1 and 2)

Author: Sylvia Nasar, translated by Wang Ershan, edited by Wang Zekuo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-10-01
Features: In this moving and vivid biography, Sylvia Nasar brings to life the story of a mathematical genius. His career was interrupted by schizophrenia, but after suffering from devastating mental illness for 30 years, he miraculously recovered and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994 for his foundational work in game theory in his youth. This book traces the brief yet brilliant life of John Forbes Nash Jr. before the age of 30, who solved a series of mathematically recognized problems and became a shining star. At the peak of his fame, Nash suffered a catastrophic mental breakdown and fell into terrible delusions. He resigned from his teaching position at MIT and immersed himself in a series of bizarre fantasies, eventually becoming a dreamlike phantom at Princeton, scribbling numerological madness on blackboards. He was nearly forgotten by the world—until he came out of his madness and regained the world's attention. As an outstanding biography, it also vividly describes the extraordinary yet fragile nature of geniuses. This book won the 1998 American Book Review Critics Biography Award and the 2000 American Mathematical Union Policy Committee Communication Award.