AshehougAgency

It was the Audacity of My Thinking

Full title: It was the Audacity of My Thoughts. The Mathematician Sophus Lie

"In our Days, it is our Poets who impress the greater World with the Audacity of their Thinking and the Brilliance of its Form. Do not think ill of me when I make a claim upon a little of the same Blood. Without Phantasy one would never become a Mathematician, and what gave me a Place among mathematicians of our Day, despite my Lack of Knowledge and Form, was the Audacity of my Thinking."
Lie in a letter to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, spring 1893

Sophus Lie (1842-88) is undoubtedly one of the greatest scientific talents fostered by Norway. His path-breaking mathematical works have brought him no less fame than has been accorded Norway’s other well-known mathematician, Niels Henrik Abel. The concepts "Lie groups" and "Lie algebra" are today part of the standard mathematical vocabulary. In his rich and nuanced biography, the writer Arild Stubhaug allows us to experience up close both the man, Sophus Lie, and his age. We follow him through childhood at the vicarage in Nordfjordeid on the west coast of Norway, and his further growth in the town of Moss, his schooldays and his student life in Christiania, his travels to Europe and contact with the leading mathematicians of the day, the academic and scientific career that drew Lie from Christiania to Leipzig as professor, before he was successfully called back to Norway at the moment his country was standing on the threshold of national independence.

Sophus Lie was not only an intellectual force, but also garnered renown for his physical strength and endurance. He was among the early pioneers of hiking in Norway and he participated with vigour in peasant weddings and other celebrations that he encountered on his foot tours. While he was walking across France during the Franco-Prussian War, he found himself arrested on suspicion of being a German spy. This event made him instantly famous across Norway.

Sophus Lie was a man of abundant complexity such that he also harboured heavy black thoughts – Arild Stubhaug gives us insights into all sides of his nature. What is of considerable interest in relation to cultural history is the description of Sophus Lie’s courting of the woman who, after considering the matter over a lengthy engagement, would become his life’s companion. Lie’s letters from this period give a unique glimpse both of the customs of the day and of his multi-faceted personality

Praise for It was the Audacity of My Thinking:

"In these pages you may indeed meet and enjoy the company of the mathematician Sophus Lie."
(Mathematical Association of America Online)

"An impressively detailed account ... the definitive biography of Sophus Lie."
(Aftenposten)

First published: 2000 by Aschehoug
Arild Stubhaug: Biography and bibliography

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