Maker of Patterns: An Autobiography Through Letters
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A lifetime of candid reflections from physicist Freeman Dyson, “an acute observer of personality and human foibles” (New York Times Book Review).
Written between 1940 and the late 1970s, the postwar recollections of renowned physicist Freeman Dyson have been celebrated as an historic portrait of modern science and its greatest players, including Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, and Hans Bethe. Chronicling the stories of those who were engaged in solving some of the most challenging quandaries of twentieth-century physics, Dyson lends acute insight and profound observations to a life’s work spent chasing what Einstein called those “deep mysteries that Nature intends to keep for herself.” Whether reflecting on the drama of World War II, the moral dilemmas of nuclear development, the challenges of the space program, or the demands of raising six children, Dyson’s annotated letters reveal the voice of one “more creative than almost anyone else of his generation” (Kip Thorne). An illuminating work in these trying times, Maker of Patterns is an eyewitness account of the scientific discoveries that define our modern age.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"I had the good fortune to live through extraordinary times with an extraordinary collection of friends," writes Dyson (Dreams of Earth and Sky), a mathematician and physicist. In an effective dual narrative, he shares his life through letters spanning 1941 to 1978 as well as present-day reflections. Earnest and delightfully casual, the book is concerned more with the man than his science, as "family came first, friends second, and work third." Dyson's scientific work surfaces anecdotally, from his light bulb moment during a Greyhound bus trip on how to combine the rival radiation theories of Schwinger and Feynman to working at the General Atomic Laboratory on a bomb-propelled spaceship capable of going to Mars. The letters abound in informed references to notable figures, such as a description of J. Robert Oppenheimer spending his spare time "reading St. Thomas Aquinas in Latin and writing poetry in the style of Eliot." Candor and closeness are built into the narrative, as his letters address immediate family members on personal topics such as two rather unconventional marriages, child-rearing, and public service during the Kennedy administration. Covering a dizzying array of events, this long volume intimately chronicles both the sweet and bitter parts of "the daily life of an ordinary scientist doing ordinary work."
