A Brief Book Review of Isaac Newton by James Gleick
I really enjoyed this biography of Isaac Newton. The author, James Gleick, in his often lyrical style of writing, draws a portrait of Newton based on the correspondences and journals of the Englishman and other biographies of him. You will learn about the history of scientific thought for sure from this book. More interestingly, you will learn about Newton the man. And the man who emerges I was surprised to meet. Newton is obsessive. A secretive and celibate recluse, he is at all points focused and at work; at work on experimenting, measuring, studying, and describing nearly all things. He wrote millions of words in journals that never saw publication, such as his ironically named “Waste Book” in which he essentially invented calculus. Beyond natural philosophy, which was what we today call science, he is also unexpectedly obsessed with alchemy and theology, spending countless hours experimenting with metallurgy and studying biblical scholarship. What drives the plot of this biography, though, is less his intellectual passions and witnessing Newton’s developing “strength of mind”, and more his social battles. The Newton we meet is “unsocial”, “competitive”, and “ruthless” in besting contemporary thinkers of his day vying for the acclaim and giant-hood of which he thought himself singularly worthy. This aspect of his personality I had not known before. In his searing intellectual “duels” with Hooke and Leibniz we see Newton more fully. It seems only because of his faithful disciple Edmond Halley (the mathematician and astronomer famous for using Newton’s math to predict the path of a comet), is Newton coaxed out of his unsmiling seclusion into publishing his works and beginning to join society more fully. He eventually became Master of the Mint for England, in charge of printing coin for the kingdom. A position he held until his death and which made him a fortune he bequeathed to no one. A fascinating, well-crafted biography of a man, his time, and the world he wrought.