Jailtime Helps
A recent book Loving + Hating Mathematics by Reuben Hersh and Vera John-Steiner is a collection of stories and anecdotes about mathematcis and mathematicians. The stories have a purpose - to demonstrate that mathematics is a human endeavor and that mathematicians are as human as the next man. Some stories show the emergence of the attachment to maths, others the circumstances of teaching, learning and developing mathematics. The stories reflect on the social and personal sides in the lives of mathematicians of many nationalities, living in different countries and evolve mostly of the last two thirds of 20th century.
Some mathematicians had a very productive time in captivity or in prison. The famous French mathematician André Weil in the summer of 1939 escaped to Finland to avoid being drafted into the army. When Finland was occupied by the Russians a few months later, his appartment was searched and a letter from Pontryagin (in Russian) discovered. He was arrested, released at the Swedish border and shipped back to France where he was jailed for three months. He wrote to his wife, "My mathematicswork is proceeding beyond my wildest hopes, and I am even a bit worried--if it's only in prison that I work so well, will I have to arrange two or three months locked up every year?"
References
- R. Hersh, V. John-Steiner, Loving + Hating Mathematics, Princeton University Press, 2011.
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