For the Love of Math

I  have said this many, many times: the best writers are the English, the Irish and the Scots, not necessarily in that order.

I have just come across another gem. Mathematics with Love: The Courtship Correspondence of Barnes Wallis, Inventor of the Bouncing Bomb is the story and almost complete correspondence between Barnes Wallace and the love of his life, Molly Bloxam. It was "written" by one of their children, Mary Stopes-Roe, who was trained as a historian and psychologist. She worked for many years at the University of Birmingham where she studied parent-child interactions with families of Asian and British ethnic origin. While archiving her family's papers, she came across the courtship correspondence of her parents.

It is an incredible story and absolutely delightful.

At 17, Molly was on her way to university in London to study science and was struggling with math and physics. Her suitor was a 35-year-old shy man from England who had accepted a teaching job in Switzerland. From there, through their daily correspondence, he taught her math.

It is delightful to read the English phrases, to read the descriptions of university and Switzerland, to experience vicariously what was happening to two people between the end of World War I and leading up to World War II.

Most interesting is to see their feelings change for each other through the letters over time. At the outset he had fallen in love with her but was too shy to even say good-bye (he stood her up and left England without following through on his promise to say good-bye in person). For whatever reason, based on only one or two personal visits with him when the families visited, she took up correspondence with him. Perhaps he was only a sounding board for her in the beginning. But from there it developed into a full-fledged love affair.

So, I've started reading it. As one who loves math, journals, diaries, stories of love affairs, this is a real, real gem.

I see this book is available through Amazon resellers for $48. I got my redundant (and absolutely perfect condition with dust jacket) for $15.98, at the local Half-Price Bookstore in San Antonio.