https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/05/16/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-a-revolutionary-mathematician

Skip to main content
The New Yorker

  * Newsletter

To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories

Close Alert
Sign In
Search

  * News
  * Books & Culture
  * Fiction & Poetry
  * Humor & Cartoons
  * Magazine
  * Puzzles & Games
  * Video
  * Podcasts
  * Archive
  * Goings On
  * Shop

Open Navigation Menu

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories

Close Alert
The New Yorker
New Yorker Favorites

  * The Art of Decision-Making
  * My Grandmother's Desperate Choice
  * The Martha Stewart of Marijuana
  * Sympathy for the Semicolon

Dept. of Science
May 16, 2022 Issue

The Mysterious Disappearance of a Revolutionary Mathematician

Alexander Grothendieck was revered for revealing connections between
seemingly unrelated realms. Then he dropped out of society.

By Rivka Galchen

May 9, 2022

  *  
  *  
  *  
  *  
  *  
    Save this story for later.

A face made up of points on a grid
"Whole fields of mathematics speak the language that he set up," a
professor said.Illustration by Lauren Peters-Collaer

  *  
  *  
  *  
  *  
  *  
    Save this story for later.

Content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

While living in an internment camp in Vichy France, Alexander
Grothendieck was tutored in mathematics by another prisoner, a girl
named Maria. Maria taught Grothendieck, who was twelve, the
definition of a circle: all the points that are equidistant from a
given point. The definition impressed him with "its simplicity and
clarity," he wrote years later. The property of perfect rotundity had
until then appeared to him to be "mysterious beyond words."

Grothendieck became a revered mathematician. His work involved
finding the right vantage point--from there, solutions to problems
would follow easily. He rewrote definitions, even of things as basic
as a point; his reframings uncovered connections between seemingly
unrelated realms of math. He spoke of his mathematical work as the
building of houses, contrasting it with that of mathematicians who
make improvements on an inherited house or construct a piece of
furniture. Colin McLarty, a logician and philosopher of math at Case
Western Reserve, told me, "Lots of people today live in
Grothendieck's house, unaware that it's Grothendieck's house." The
M.I.T. mathematician Michael Artin, who worked with Grothendieck in
the early sixties, laughed when I asked him about Grothendieck's
contributions. "Well, everything changed in the field," he said. "He
came, and it was like night and day. It was a revolution."

Published in the print edition of the May 16, 2022, issue, with the
headline "The Grothendieck Mystery."

New Yorker Favorites

  * The gig economy celebrates working yourself to death.

  * An attempt at a simpler life quickly became a life-style brand.

  * How do you find America's brightest kids, and what do you do with
    them for the summer?

  * The makeup artist at ground zero of Internet beauty culture.

  * Learning to drink, and how to stop.

  * A Personal History by Paul McCartney: how one of the Beatles'
    greatest songs came to be.

Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The
New Yorker.

[rivka_galc]
Rivka Galchen, a staff writer at The New Yorker, has contributed
fiction and nonfiction to the magazine since 2008. Her most recent
novel is "Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch."
More:MathematicsMathematiciansDisappearancesSocietyAcademics

This Week's Issue

Never miss a big New Yorker story again. Sign up for This Week's
Issue and get an e-mail every week with the stories you have to read.
E-mail address
[                    ]
Sign up

By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy &
Cookie Statement.

The New Yorker

Sections

  * News
  * Books & Culture
  * Fiction & Poetry
  * Humor & Cartoons
  * Magazine
  * Crossword
  * Video
  * Podcasts
  * Archive
  * Goings On

More

  * Customer Care
  * Shop The New Yorker
  * Buy Covers and Cartoons
  * Conde Nast Store
  * Digital Access
  * Newsletters
  * Jigsaw Puzzle
  * RSS
  * Site Map

  * About
  * Careers
  * Contact
  * F.A.Q.
  * Media Kit
  * Press
  * Accessibility Help
  * Conde Nast Spotlight

(c) 2022 Conde Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes
acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie
Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn
a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site
as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on
this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or
otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Conde
Nast. Ad Choices

  *  
  *  
  *  
  *  
  *  

Do Not Sell My Personal Info