The Weil conjectures : on math and the pursuit of the unknown / Karen Olsson.
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Edition: First editionDescription: 214 pages ; 22 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780374287610
- 0374287619
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book | Main Library | NonFiction | 510.92 O52 | Available | 33111009689486 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
A New York Times Editors' Pick and Paris Review Staff Pick
"A wonderful book." --Patti Smith
"I was riveted. Olsson is evocative on curiosity as an appetite of the mind, on the pleasure of glutting oneself on knowledge." --Parul Sehgal, The New York Times
An eloquent blend of memoir and biography exploring the Weil siblings, math, and creative inspiration
Karen Olsson's stirring and unusual third book, The Weil Conjectures , tells the story of the brilliant Weil siblings--Simone, a philosopher, mystic, and social activist, and André, an influential mathematician--while also recalling the years Olsson spent studying math. As she delves into the lives of these two singular French thinkers, she grapples with their intellectual obsessions and rekindles one of her own. For Olsson, as a math major in college and a writer now, it's the odd detours that lead to discovery, to moments of insight. Thus The Weil Conjectures --an elegant blend of biography and memoir and a meditation on the creative life.
Personal, revealing, and approachable, The Weil Conjectures eloquently explores math as it relates to intellectual history, and shows how sometimes the most inexplicable pursuits turn out to be the most rewarding.
"A biography of Simone Weil's brilliant mathematician brother, André, and a memoir of the author's own fascination with math."-- Provided by publisher.