Mathreader's Blog

I heard the name Coxeter before, guessing somewhat vaguely that he was a geometer contributing to group theory as well. And of course I knew the book on regular polytopes. But I did not know anything about him. Since last September when I started my new postdoc, the name has been mentioned every day, but I was still ignorant about him. One day I wondered into the library, just for browsing (enjoying the existence of the bookshelves and printed books before they disappear) and I found this: Siobhan Roberts King of Infinite Space: Donald Coxeter, the Man Who Saved Geometry.

This is one of the best mathematical biographies, if not the best one. It was a page turner for me. Well, I’m interested in the topic as my current research is related to his works. I have nostalgic feel about Cambridge. I like Escher’s drawings. His last conference trip was to Budapest in 2002.  But apart from the fact that I am obviously biased, this book conveys a decent amount of mathematical knowledge (e.g. regular polyhedra, good introduction to Coxeter diagrams, etc). There is also an attempt to explain what a group is. Obviously I cannot judge how successful that is.

You can also learn about the whole Bourbaki phenomenon, and finally understand that why is it so that about the same topic one book is a horrible read while the other one is pure entertainment.

The endnotes are overwhelming, almost a fifth of the book. This shows that there was a great deal of research behind this book, but also hints that there could be a lighter edition of this book. Of course, the bibliography, appendices and the publication list is essential.

The description of Coxeter’s life is so detailed that sometimes I felt like a voyeur, seeing too much of his private life. I don’t know, maybe that makes the whole book such a good read.

In sum: I never was that much interested in geometry, but after reading this I would like to read his books on Geometry.