A Beautiful Mind : a Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, 1994 / Sylvia Nasar.

Author
Nasar, Sylvia [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, [1998]
  • ©1998
Description
459 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks QA29.N25 N37 1998 Browse related items Request
    Firestone Library - Stacks QA29.N25 N37 1998 Browse related items Request
      Lewis Library - Stacks QA29.N25 N37 1998 Browse related items Request

        Details

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        Library of Congress genre(s)
        Summary note
        "In 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."--Jacket.
        Bibliographic references
        Includes bibliographical references and index.
        Contents
        • Part 1. A beautiful mind
        • 1. Bluefield (1928-45)
        • 2. Carnegie Institute of Technology (June 1945-June 1948)
        • 3. The center of the universe (Princeton, Fall 1948)
        • 4. School of genius (Princeton, Fall 1948)
        • 5. Genius (Princeton, 1948-49)
        • 6. Games (Princeton, Spring 1949)
        • 7. John von Neumann (Princeton, 1948-49)
        • 8. The theory of games
        • 9. The bargaining problem (Princeton, Spring 1949)
        • 10. Nash's rival idea (Princeton, 1949-50)
        • 11. Lloyd (Princeton, 1950)
        • 12. The war of wits (RAND, Summer 1950)
        • 13. Game theory at RAND
        • 14. The draft (Princeton, 1950-51)
        • 15. A beautiful theorem (Princeton, 1950-51)
        • 16. MIT
        • 17. Bad boys
        • 18. Experiments (RAND, Summer 1952)
        • 19. Reds (Spring 1953)
        • 20. Geometry
        • Part 2. Separate lives
        • 21. Singularity
        • 22. A special friendship (Santa Monica, Summer 1952)
        • 23. Eleanor
        • 24. Jack
        • 25. The arrest (RAND, Summer 1954)
        • 26. Alicia
        • 27. The courtship
        • 28. Seattle (Summer 1956)
        • 29. Death and marriage (1956-57)
        • Part 3. A slow fire burning
        • 30. Olden lane and Washington square (1956-57)
        • 31. The bomb factory
        • 32. Secrets (Summer 1958)
        • 33. Schemes (Fall 1958)
        • 34. The emperor of Antarctica
        • 35. In the eye of the storm (Spring 1959)
        • 36. Day breaks in Bowditch Hall (McLean Hospital, April-May 1959)
        • 37. Mad Hatter's Tea (May-June 1959)
        • Part 4. The lost years
        • 38. Citoyen du Monde (Paris and Geneva, 1959-60)
        • 39. Absolute zero (Princeton, 1960)
        • 40. Tower of silence (Trenton State Hospital, 1961)
        • 41. An interlude of enforced rationality (July 1961-April 1963)
        • 42. The "blowing up" problem (Princeton and Carrier Clinic, 1963-65)
        • 43. Solitude (Boston, 1965-67)
        • 44. A man all alone in a strange world (Roanoke, 1967-70)
        • 45. Phantom of Fine Hall (Princeton, 1970s)
        • 46. A quiet life (Princeton, 1970-90)
        • Part 5. The most worthy
        • 47. Remission
        • 48. The prize
        • 49. The greatest auction ever (Washington, D.C., December 1994)
        • 50. Reawakening (Princeton, 1995-97)
        • Epilogue.
        ISBN
        • 0684819066
        • 9780684819068
        • 0743224574
        • 9780743224574
        • 9781451628425
        • 1451628420
        • 0684853701
        • 9780684853703
        LCCN
        98002795
        OCLC
        38377745
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