The Boundless Quest: A Life of Ramanujan - Philosopher's Stone Series

Author: Robert Kanigel, translated by Hu Leshi and Qi Minyou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-10-01
Features: In 1913, a young Indian clerk without a formal education named Ramanujan wrote to the renowned British mathematician G.H. Hardy, asking the scholar for feedback on his ideas about mathematics. Hardy recognized the letter as coming from a genius and devised a plan to bring Ramanujan to England. Thus began a historically rare and fruitful collaboration.
With great enthusiasm for the rich and engaging details, the author guides us from the temples and slums of Madras, India, to the academic courtyards and churches of Cambridge University in England. There, the devout Hindu "Prince of Intuition," Ramanujan, worked alongside the rigorous and eccentric "Apostle of Proof," Hardy, to verify his brilliant theories. Ramanujan's intense creative contributions came at a cost: he died at the young age of 33, leaving behind a mesmerizing and profound mathematical legacy that continues to be explored today.
This book is one of America's bestselling books and was awarded the "American Book Review Biography Award" in 1992.