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Discusses the Nobel Institution in detail, telling about the award and its beginnings, what it means to win a Nobel Prize, the fields in which it is presented, who judges and how the prize is awarded, and more.
This biography by the New York Times best-selling author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee traces the life of National Book Award-winning novelist John Williams, author of the cult classic novel Stoner.
In 1944, Albert Einstein invited three close friends, giants of contemporary science and thought, to his home at 112 Mercer Street in Princeton, New Jersey to discuss science, philosophy, and world events.These were Bertrand Russell, the incomparable logician, philosopher, and humanist; Wolfgang Pauli, the great physicist; and Kurt Godel, the groundbreaking logician.Using these historic meetings as a starting point, Burton Feldman provides a highly original examination of these four very outsized personalities as friends, colleagues and rivals-particularly the stubborn and supremely self-confident Einstein and the aristocratic Russell.Masterfully researched, this accessible book illuminates the feelings of these great men about the world of science that was then beginning to pass them by, and about the dawning atomic age that terrified them all.
As World War II wound down and it became increasingly clear that the Allies would emerge victorious, Albert Einstein invited three close friends—all titans of contemporary science and philosophy—to his home at 112 Mercer Street in Princeton, New Jersey, to discuss what they loved best—science and philosophy. His guests were the legendary philosopher and pacifist, Bertrand Russell; the boy wonder of quantum physics, Wolfgang Pauli; and the brilliant logician, Kurt Gödel. Their casual meetings took place far from the horrific battlefields of the war and the (then) secret lair of experimental atomic physicists in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Using these historic meetings as his launching pad, Feldman sketches the lives and contributions of the four friends, colleagues, and rivals—especially Einstein, innately self-confident but frustrated in his attempt to come up with a unified theory, and the aristocratic but self-doubting Lord Russell. Masterfully researched, this book accessibly illuminates the feelings of these notable men about the world of science that was then beginning to pass them by, and about the dawning atomic age that terrified them all.
In the 1980s China’s politicians, writers, and academics began to raise an increasingly urgent question: why had a Chinese writer never won a Nobel Prize for literature? Promoted to the level of official policy issue and national complex, Nobel anxiety generated articles, conferences, and official delegations to Sweden. Exiled writer Gao Xingjian’s win in 2000 failed to satisfactorily end the matter, and the controversy surrounding the Nobel committee’s choice has continued to simmer. Julia Lovell’s comprehensive study of China’s obsession spans the twentieth century and taps directly into the key themes of modern Chinese culture: national identity, international status, and the re...
"The interpreter's dream-text," as one critic called Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym has prompted critical approaches almost as varied as the experiences it chronicles. This is the first book to deal exclusively with Pym, Poe's longest fictional work and in many ways his most ambitious. Here leading Poe scholars provide solutions and interpretations for many challenging enigmas in this mysterious novel. The product of a decade of research and planning, Poe's "Pym" offers a factual basis for some of the most fantastic elements in the novel and uncovers surprising connections between Poe's text and exploration literature, nautical lore, Arthurian narrative, nineteenth-cent...
Irwin mirrors the aesthetic impact of the genre by creating in his study the dynamics of a detective story--the uncovering of mysteries, the accumulation of evidence, the tracing of clues, and the final solution that ties it all together.
Guy Stroumsa offers an innovative and powerful argument that the comparative study of religion finds its origin in early modern Europe. --from publisher description.