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Title: Ramanujan: Letters and Commentary (History of Mathematics, Vol 9) by Bruce C. Berndt, Robert A. Rankin, Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar ISBN: 0-8218-0287-9 Publisher: American Mathematical Society Pub. Date: August, 1995 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $62.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: Get personal with Ramanujan through letters
Comment: Ramanujan was most certainly the most talented mathematician of this century. With essentially no formal training, he managed to discover an enormous number of formulas, many of which were quite different from those previously known. The story of how he came to the attention of the mathematical community and was brought into "formal" mathematical circles is an interesting one. Given the colonial nature of the relationship between England and India, it would have been "natural" for the English mathematicians to consider an untrained colonial native to be beneath them. However, to their credit, there is no evidence that the English mathematicians ever felt or acted this way.
This book is the story of Ramanujan told through the letters that were written by and about him. While many are very formal, you still see the personalities emerging. G.H. Hardy is at times in awe of Ramanujan's ability, proving to be a person of high quality as he tries as best he can to aid him in adapting to British society and to doing mathematics in a formal way. Many others are also involved, and it is clear that they do have a genuine interest in his welfare as a person and as a mathematician. The commentary included among the letters is very helpful in establishing a context for the text. The authors do a very good job in explaining the circumstances of the letters. Some deal with social conditions and others are as simple as a description of what a word means.
What is most impressive about the book is that there is no undercurrent of colonial class consciousness running through the material in the letters. Given the situation in the early part of the twentieth century, that would have been typical of most English men of the times and it is a tribute to the mathematicians that they avoided it. Not many others would have been so noble.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.