Abstract
PROF. E. T. BELL has written a fascinating book. The amount of biographical details and of mathematics that he has compressed into a volume of 650 pages is extraordinary ; but he is never dull ; his style is lively, at times even 'snappy' ; he carries the reader along ; he whets the appetite. No doubt the mathematician of a certain age who remembers little more mathematics than what he learnt at school and at the university will wish that the modern theories and developments could be more fully described so that he could get a better general idea of them ; and the reader who is mainly interested in the personal and human side, while reading with enjoyment the biographical details, which are not easily accessible elsewhere, will wish for more. This is as it should be ; but, if the writer has set himself what is (in such a compass) a wellnigh impossible task, we are not the less grateful to him.
Men of Mathematics
By Prof. E. T. Bell. Pp. 653. (London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1937.) 12s. 6d. net.
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Men of Mathematics. Nature 140, 525 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140525a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140525a0