Subject: Re: [HM] Mathematics in Literature
From: Craig B. Waff (Cbwaff@aol.com)
Date: Sun Jun 04 2000 - 21:06:58 EDT
The office copy of the March 6, 2000, issue of 'Publishers Weeky' recently
finally circulated to my desk, and in it (p. 83) is a brief description and
review of Dutch author Philibert Schogt's novel 'The Wild Numbers' (Four
Walls Eight Windows; ISBN 1-56858-166-1), whose protagonist is described as
"Isaac Swift, 35, a mediocre mathematics professor at a small college in an
unnamed city and country, who despairs of achieving fame in his field."
Swift does, however, find a solution to "Bearegard's Wild Number Problem, a
notoriously impossible, centuries-old math conundrum." The anonymous
reviewer takes note of other recent books about "impossible" mathematical
problems, both nonfiction ('Fermat's Last Theorem'} and fiction ('Uncle
Petros' and 'Goldbach's Conjecture'), and describes Schogt as "a welcome
voice: a skilled and energetic story teller whose timeless tale illustrates
the ironies of academic pettiness and ambition."
Craig B. Waff
Encyclopedia Americana
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