Man who knew infinity: a life of the genius Ramanujan

Contents

Prologue
One/In the temple’s coolness/1887 to 1903
Two/Ranging with delight/1903 to 1908
Three/The search for patrons/1908 to 1913
Four/Hardy/G.H. Hardy to 1913
Five/I beg to introduce myself/1913 to 1914
Six/Ramanujan’s spring/1914 to 1916
Seven/The English chill/1916 to 1918
Eight/In somewhat indifferent health/from 1918
Epilogue
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Author’s note and acknowledgements
Index

The Man Who Knew Infinity is the true story of a friendship between Srinivasa Ramanujan and G.H. Hardy that forever changed mathematics.

In 1913, a young unschooled Indian clerk wrote a letter to G H Hardy, begging the pre-eminent English mathematician’s opinion on several ideas he had about numbers. Realising the letter was the work of a genius, Hardy arranged for Srinivasa Ramanujan to come to England. Thus began one of the most improbable and productive collaborations ever chronicled.

With a passion for rich and evocative detail, Robert Kanigel takes us from the temples and slums of Madras to the courts and chapels of Cambridge University, where the devout Hindu Ramanujan, ‘the Prince of Intuition,’ tested his brilliant theories alongside the sophisticated and eccentric Hardy, ‘the Apostle of Proof’. In time, Ramanujan’s creative intensity took its toll: he died at the age of thirty-two and left behind a magical and inspired legacy that is still being plumbed for its secrets today.