A Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, 1994 - Softcover

Michael J. Mandel"Business Week" A fascinating account of creativity barely under control, of a mathematical genius who was driven by -- and eventually overwhelmed by -- his own inner demons. A staggering feat of writing and reporting. Simon Singh"The New York Times Book Review" "A Beautiful Mind" tells a moving story and offers a remarkable look into the arcane world of mathematics and the tragedy of madness. Claire Douglas"The Washington Post Book World" A fascinating overview of [Nash's] life and the intellectual history of his times...a wonderfully absorbing puzzle. Keith Devlin"New Scientist" Nash's life has been a remarkable mental journey. Nasar's first-rate biography describes that journey for us. Charles C. Mann"The Wall Street Journal" After suffering with Mr. Nash's family through his madness, the reader greets his recovery -- and his ability to reforge a bond with his wife -- as a triumph..."A Beautiful Mind" is one of the few scholarly biographies I have encountered that could plausibly be described as a three-handkerchief read. Richard Jed Wyatt & Kay Redfield Jamison"The New England Journal of Medicine" Nasar has written an intriguing account of a fascinating man, of a "beautiful" mind, and of terrible madness. She has also written a deeply moving love story, an account of the centrality of human relationships in a world of nightmare and genius. Marcia Bartusiak"The Boston Globe" "[A Beautiful Mind]" might be compared to a Rembrandt portrait, filled with somber shadows and radiant light effects...superbly written and eminently fascinating...simply a beautiful book. Ted Anton"Chicago Tribune" This dense, carefully researched work is also, unexpectedly, a poetical love and coming-of-age story. David Goodstein"The New York Times" [Sylvia Nasar] has written a biography of John Nash that reads like a fine novel.

In this powerful and dramatic biography Sylvia Nasar vividly re-creates the life of a mathematical genius whose 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., a prodigy and legend by the age of thirty, who dazzled the mathematical world by solving a series of deep problems deemed "impossible" by other mathematicians. But at the height of his fame, Nash suffered a catastrophic mental breakdown and began a harrowing descent into insanity, resigning his post at MIT, slipping into a series of bizarre delusions, and eventually becoming a dreamy, ghostlike figure at Princeton, scrawling numerological messages on blackboards. He was all but forgotten by the outside world -- until, remarkably, he emerged from his madness to win world acclaim. A feat of biographical writing, "A Beautiful Mind" is also a fascinating look at the extraordinary and fragile nature of genius.