A multifaceted biography of a brilliant mathematician and iconoclast
A mathematician unlike any other, John Horton Conway (1937–2020) possessed a rock star's charisma, a polymath's promiscuous curiosity, and a sly sense of humor. Conway found fame as a barefoot professor at Cambridge, where he discovered the Conway groups in mathematical symmetry and the aptly named surreal numbers. He also invented the cult classic Game of Life, a cellular automaton that demonstrates how simplicity generates complexity-and provides an analogy for mathematics and the entire universe. Moving to Princeton in 1987, Conway used ropes, dice, pennies, coat hangers, and the occasional Slinky to illustrate his winning imagination and share his nerdish delights. Genius at Play tells the story of this ambassador-at-large for the beauties and joys of mathematics, lays bare Conway's personal and professional idiosyncrasies, and offers an intimate look into the mind of one of the twentieth century's most endearing and original intellectuals. Siobhan Roberts is an award-winning science journalist and regular contributor to the New York Times. She is the author of The Man Who Saved Geometry and Wind Wizard (both Princeton). "An engaging, broad-ranging, and sometimes hilarious portrait of one of the most charismatic and curious minds in the history of mathematics."-Brian Eno
"Genius at Play is a portrait of one creative genius by another. Absolutely brilliant."―Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind
"Roberts has written a very unusual book about a very unusual subject. Her chronicling of Conway's life is interwoven with her narration of the adventure she undertook in trying to capture his story. The result is a wonderful biography that brings this bewildering, fascinating, and utterly charming mathematical genius back to life."-Ingrid Daubechies, Duke University
"[A] virtuoso juggling of narrative speeds, reminiscences, implausible digressions and long passages of precise, comprehensible mathematics."-Michael Harris, Nature
"Makes you laugh with surprise."-Jordan Ellenberg, Wall Street Journal
"A delightful metabiography-playful indeed-of a brilliant iconoclast."-James Gleick, author of The Information and Time Travel
