The true story of a mathematical mystery, a million-dollarprize, and the fate of genius in today's world. In 2006, an eccentric Russian genius named Grigori Perelman solvedPoincare's Conjecture, one of seven great unsolved mathamaticalmysteries, the solution to any of which the Clay Institute, foundedby Boston businessman Landon Clay in 2000 to promote mathematics,promised a million-dollar prize. It is widely expected that thefirst Clay Prize will be awarded to Perelman in October 2009, andit is equally widely expected that he will decline it. Why? Masha Gessen set out to find out. In the manner of Nabokov's Real Life of Sebastian Knight , or more recently andaccessibly, Sylvia Nasar's A Beautiful Mind , or evenElizabeth Gilbert's The Last American Man , Gessen exploresthe nature of Perelma's mind and the reasons for his unusual,increasingly isolated behavior. Drawing on interviews with Perelman's teachers, classmates,coaches, teammates, and colleagues in Russia and the US, Gessen hasconstructed a gripp
This major study of the composer's life and work follows thecourse of Bach's career in rich detail - from his humble beginningsas an organ tuner and self-taught musician, to his role asKapellmeister and cantor of St. Thomas' Church in Leipzig. Itexplores Bach's relations with the German aristocracy, the Churchand contemporary theological debates, his perfectionism, and hisrole as the devoted head of a large family. The author alsocarefully analyses Bach's innovations in harmony and counterpoint,placing them in the context of European musical and socialhistory.
From the author of the best-selling biography Woody Allen—themost informative, revealing, and entertaining conversations fromhis thirty-six years of interviewing the great comedian andfilmmaker. For more than three decades, Woody Allen has been talkingregularly and candidly with Eric Lax, and has given him singularand unfettered access to his film sets, his editing room, and histhoughts and observations. In discussions that begin in 1971 andcontinue into 2007, Allen discusses every facet of moviemakingthrough the prism of his own films and the work of directors headmires. In doing so, he reveals an artist’s development over thecourse of his career to date, from joke writer to standup comedianto world-acclaimed filmmaker. Woody talks about the seeds of his ideas and the writing of hisscreenplays; about casting and acting, shooting and directing,editing and scoring. He tells how he reworks screenplays even whilefilming them. He describes the problems he has had casting Ameri
