Mathematician with the Soul of a Poet: Poems and Plays of Sofia Kovalevskaya - Couverture rigide

Kovalevskaya, Sofia; Coleman, Sandra DeLozier

Couverture rigide

ISBN 13 : 9798985029819

Editeur : Bohannon Hall Press, 2021

Synopsis

Mathematician with the Soul of a Poet begins with the story of why and how a math professor, artist and poet wanted to and was able to develop the translations of nine poems and two plays written by Sofia Kovalevskaya when, in the beginning, she did not even know the sounds or order of the letters in the Russian alphabet . The poems and two plays, How it Was and How It Might Have Been, enhance the life story of a brave young Russian woman who entered into a fictitious marriage so that she could travel to Germany to study mathematics. By earning the first PhD in mathematics awarded to a woman, Kovalevskaya broke open the long tightly closed doors to university education for women. Her poems and plays reveal a woman of great passion who clearly wanted to be remembered for much more than her mathematics!

A propos du livre

À propos des auteurs

At a time when women were not allowed to attend university classes, Sofia Korvin-Krukovskaya entered into a fictitious marriage with a young scientist, Vladimir Kovalevsky, so that he could help her get a passport to travel to Germany to study mathematics. She was invited to study privately at the home of mathematician, Karl Weierstrass, after she impressed him with her mathematical ability. After four years of hard work, she succeeded in obtaining a doctoral degree, the first ever awarded to a woman. She went on to win the prestigious Prix Bordin and became an editor of Acta Mathematica. In 1889, in Sweden, she was awarded a full professorship, another important first for women. In addition to her high mathematical honors, she published a widely-acclaimed autobiography, "A Russian Childhood," a successful novella, "Nihilist Girl," and two parallel plays, "How It Was" and "How It Might Have Been."

Sandra DeLozier Coleman is a writer, artist and poet, who taught mathematics at colleges and universities for thirty years. She began translating the Kovalevskaya plays before software tools used today had been developed. She knew no Russian - not even the sounds or order of the letters in the Russian alphabet - but she was determined to learn as much as she needed to know to be able to translate the poems and plays. She was an invited presenter at the International Symposium Dedicated to the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Sofia Kovalevskaya in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2000, where she presented translations of the Kovalevskaya poems that matched the originals in both form and content. Back home, she continued work on translating the plays for more than twenty-years. The resulting book, "Mathematician with the Soul of a Poet," begins with a chapter of engaging stories about her early efforts to translate. Readers will enjoy a collection of tales of her search for friends who spoke Russian, her travels to many countries where Kovalevskaya lived or visited, and the high and low points of participating in a Russian math conference. Coleman has been a frequent invited presenter at the Joint Mathematics Meetings poetry gatherings and has written more than one hundred math-related poems, including one published in a Scientific American article that has been republished in several languages. She has written poems about each of the sculptures in the book "Helaman Ferguson: Mathematics in Stone and Bronze." Some of these appear in her new book, "Swirling Symmetry," a very unique collection of thoughts and images through which Sandra DeLozier Coleman celebrates pattern and symmetry.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Bohannon Hall Press
• Date d'édition: 2021
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 13: 9798985029819
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 252
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible