On Sale: Jun 28, 2011
Page Count: 560 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN-13: 9780465022106

$24.99

$30.99 CAD

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Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

The definitive biography of Paul Dirac, the brilliant—and enigmatic—physicist whose foundational work in quantum mechanics revolutionized modern science.

“This biography is a gift.… A thought-provoking meditation on human achievement, limitations, and the relations between the two.” —New York Times Book Review

Paul Dirac was among the great scientific geniuses of the modern age. An admired colleague of Albert Einstein and one of the discoverers of quantum mechanics, the most revolutionary theory of the past century, Dirac also predicted the existence of antimatter—widely regarded as a triumph of twentieth-century physics—and was the youngest theoretician ever to win the Nobel Prize in physics.

Like Dirac’s achievements, his personality is legendary. An extraordinarily reserved loner, relentlessly literal-minded and seemingly devoid of empathy, Dirac was nevertheless an intensely loyal family man, with tastes in the arts that ranged from Beethoven to Cher, from Rembrandt to Mickey Mouse.

Based on previously undiscovered archives, The Strangest Man reveals the many facets of Dirac’s brilliantly original mind, while also charting one of the most spectacularly exciting eras in scientific history.

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Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

Named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review * Economist * Independent * Globe & Mail * Times Literary Supplement * Library Journal * Booklist
“The unsung hero of twentieth-century physics is at last brilliantly illuminated.”
Ian McEwan
“The last great book I have read.... It was 600 pages long and not a word too long.”
Oliver Sacks
“Graham Farmelo has managed to haul Dirac onstage in an affectionate and meticulously researched book that illuminates both his era and his science.”
Los Angeles Times
“This biography, long overdue, is most welcome.”
Economist
“A consummate and seamless biography…. Farmelo has succeeded masterfully in the difficult genre of writing a great scientist’s life for a general audience.”
Science
“An incredibly fascinating book.”
Lev Grossman, Time.com
“Enthralling…. Regardless of whether Dirac was autistic or simply unpleasant, he is an icon of modern thought and Farmelo’s book gives us a genuine insight into his life and times.”
New Scientist
“In Farmelo’s book we see Dirac as a character in a human drama, carrying his full share of tragedy as well as triumph.”
New York Review of Books
“As this excellent biography by Graham Farmelo shows, Dirac’s contributions to science were profound and far-ranging.... The effortless writing style shows that it is possible to describe profound ideas without compromising scientific integrity or readability.”
Frank Close, Nature, Personal Favorites of the Year
“A very easy read, a very nice history book.”
NPR’s Science Friday
“An excellent biography of a hero of physics.... In The Strangest Man, we are treated to a fascinating, thoroughly researched, and well-written account of one of the most important figures of modern physics.”
Physics Today
“Fascinating reading…. Farmelo has done a splendid job of portraying Dirac and his world. The biography is a major achievement.”
Peter Higgs, Times (UK)
“A rich book: it pinpoints the moment, the milieu, the excitement of discovery and the mystery of matter, and it provides an alternative social history of the 20th century as well. And all of this is held together by a figure simultaneously touching and mysterious, capable of leaps of the imagination on the scale of Einstein and Newton and Darwin.”
Guardian (UK)
“If Newton was the Shakespeare of British physics, Dirac was its Milton, the most fascinating and enigmatic of all our great scientists. And he now has a biography to match his talents: a wonderful book by Graham Farmelo. The story it tells is moving, sometimes comic, sometimes infinitely sad, and goes to the roots of what we mean by truth in science.”
Telegraph (UK)
“No scientific life supplied richer food for thought than Graham Farmelo’s The Strangest Man. Here the spiky personality and soaring achievements of quantum-physics pioneer Paul Dirac converge, without the petty reductionism that often, and rightly, offends biography sceptics. Never blind to the shortcomings, Farmelo—like all the brightest of his trade—gives us the greatness too.”
Independent (UK)
“Graham Farmelo, once a theoretical physicist himself and now a specialist in science communication, has produced a marvelously rich and intimate study which, if anything can do it, should finally get people talking about this great 20th-century Briton.”
New Statesman (UK)
“A superb biography.... Those who are interested in the psychology of genius will find Dirac’s story, as told by Farmelo, compelling. The book is also a wonderful romp through the golden age of quantum physics.... This excellent biography is worthy of its remarkable subject.”
Globe and Mail (Canada)
“An immensely detailed picture of one of the most gifted and fascinating physicists of all time.”
New Humanist
“Farmelo proves himself a wizard at explaining the arcane aspects of particle physics. His great affection for his odd but brilliant subject shows on every page, giving Dirac the biography any great scientist deserves.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“In a probing portrait of Paul Dirac.... Farmelo combines an accessible presentation of Dirac’s achievements in theoretical physics with intriguing appreciations of his private life and personality.”
Booklist (starred review)
“Paul Dirac was a giant of 20th-century physics, and this rich, satisfying biography does him justice.... A nuanced portrayal of an introverted eccentric who held his own in a small clique of revolutionary scientific geniuses.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“While I’ve read a large number of treatments of the history and personalities involved in the birth of quantum mechanics, this one is definitely the best.... Farmelo’s book is quite wonderful, by far the best thing written about Dirac as a person and scientist, and it’s likely to remain so for quite a while.”
Peter Woit, author of Not Even Wrong

Graham Farmelo

About the Author

Graham Farmelo is the author of several books, including The Strangest Man, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Farmelo is a Fellow at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, an Affiliated Professor at Northeastern University, and is a regular visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He lives in London.

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