The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth, by Paul Hoffman (TPB, 1998, $2)
Paul Erdos was different. He never cooked, never drove, never did his wash. He rarely tied his own shoes, or buttered his own toast. He spoke using words he made up. He lived out of his suitcase, seldom staying any place very long. Until she died, his mother looked after him. After she died, his friend (?) took over. Ronald Graham was paid to look after all the mathematicians and computer scientists at Bell Labs. He wasn't paid to look after Erdos, or his stuff. "His stuff" included writing his checks, recording his income (as it came in from all over the world), keeping his math papers, and answering his correspondence. When Erdos was in town, Graham always had a room available, grapefruit in the refrigerator, and his wife available for "play" (ie. talk about mathematics). The rest of the time Erdos was free to travel the world discussing math problems with the greatest minds in the world.
Writes Hoffman, "Before Erdos died, on September 20, 1996, at the age of 83, he had managed to think about more problems than any other mathematician in history. He wrote or co-authored 1,475 academic papers, many of them monumental, and all of them substantial. It wasn't just the quantity of work that was impressive, but the quality."
"Erdos criss-crossed four continents at a frenzied pace, moving from one university or research center to the next. His modus operandi was to show up on the doorstep of a fellow mathematician, declare, "My brain is open," work with his host for a day or two, until he was bored or his host was run down, and then move on to another home." Taking amphetamines helped him maintain his frenetic pace, but he had been frenetic long before he started taking drugs.
Well, I did say he was different. Look for this book on the new non-fiction table. (L-math)
