A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John NashIn this biography, Sylvia Nasar re-creates the life of a mathematical genius whose brilliant career was cut short by schizophrenia and who, after three decades of devastating mental illness, miraculously recovered and was honored with a Nobel Prize. A Beautiful Mind traces the meteoric rise of John Forbes Nash, Jr., from his lonely childhood in West Virginia to his student years at Princeton, where he encountered Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, and a host of other mathematical luminaries. At twenty-one, the handsome, ambitious, eccentric graduate student invented what would become the most influential theory of rational human behavior in modern social science. Nash's contribution to game theory would ultimately revolutionize the field of economics. At thirty, Nash was poised to take his dreamed-of place in the pantheon of history's greatest mathematicians. Then Nash suffered a catastrophic mental breakdown Nasar details Nash's harrowing descent into insanity - his bizarre delusions that he was the Prince of Peace; his resignation from MIT, flight to Europe, and attempt to renounce his American citizenship; his repeated hospitalizations, from the storied McLean, where he came to know the poet Robert Lowell, to the crowded wards of a state hospital; his "enforced interludes of rationality" during which he was able to return briefly to mathematical research. At age sixty-six, twin miracles - a spontaneous remission of his illness and the sudden decision of the Nobel Prize committee to honor his contributions to game theory - restored the world to him. Nasar recounts the bitter behind-the-scenes battle in Stockholm over whether to grant the ultimate honor in science to a man thought to be "mad." She describes Nash's current ambition to pursue new mathematical breakthroughs and his efforts to be a loving father to his adult sons. |
Contents
Prologue | 11 |
2 | 40 |
5 | 49 |
7 | 78 |
9 | 88 |
12 | 100 |
13 | 107 |
Game Theory at RAND | 115 |
Secrets Summer 1958 | 228 |
33 | 235 |
35 | 248 |
37 | 258 |
The Lost Years | 267 |
39 | 283 |
41 | 295 |
42 | 305 |
The Draft Princeton 195051 | 123 |
16 | 133 |
Bad Boys | 139 |
19 | 150 |
21 | 167 |
24 | 180 |
15 | 185 |
27 | 199 |
29 | 208 |
30 | 215 |
31 | 222 |
43 | 314 |
A Man All Alone in a Strange World Roanoke 196770 | 323 |
45 | 332 |
46 | 340 |
The Most Worthy | 347 |
48 | 356 |
49 | 364 |
50 | 379 |
Epilogue | 389 |
| 437 | |
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Common terms and phrases
academy Advanced Study Alicia Nash American Arthur Mattuck asked Baumecker Bluefield Borel Bricker Browder Calabi Cambridge Cohen common room Confidential source Danskin Donald Spencer Duchane e-mail economics economists Einstein Eleanor Emma faculty Felix Browder friends game theory genius Gian-Carlo Rota graduate student Harold Kuhn Harvard Hormander hospital Ibid idea Institute for Advanced interest interview John David John Forbes Nash John Milnor John Nash John von Neumann Johnny knew Larde later lecture Lefschetz Letter from John Levinson Lindbeck Lloyd Shapley looked Martha Nash Legg Martin Martin Shubik math mathematicians mathematics department Morgenstern Moser Nash's Newman Nobel paper patients person players Postcard Princeton University prize committee problem professor of mathematics psychiatrist RAND RAND's recalled Riemann Robert schizophrenia seemed Shapley Shubik social Solomon Lefschetz Stahl Stier summer talk theorem things thought told Tucker turned Virginia wanted Weibull Wiener William wrote York young