The Man Who Knew Infinity - Robert Kanigel

Reading the life of Ramanujan (pronounced something like Raa-MAA-nuh-jun) is likely to put those with an oldfashioned literary bent in mind of Gray’s “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”, lines fifty-three to fifty-six: “Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.” Or to put it in other, less poetic words: some people never realize a minute fraction of their very great potential. Many more geniuses have been born than have ever been heard of, and Ramanujan was nearly one of those born ...  Read the complete review