Audible Studios on Brilliance
The Newton Papers: The Strange and True Odyssey of Isaac Newton's Manuscripts
Key Metrics
- Sarah Dry
- Audible Studios on Brilliance
- Audio
- 9781522659839
- -
- -
- Science > History
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
When Isaac Newton died in 1727 without a will, he left behind a wealth of papers that, when examined, gave his followers and his family a deep sense of unease. Some of what they contained was wildly heretical and alchemically obsessed, hinting at a Newton altogether stranger and less palatable than the one enshrined in Westminster Abbey as the paragon of English rationality. These manuscripts had the potential to undermine not merely Newton's reputation, but that of the scientific method he embodied. They were immediately suppressed as unfit to be printed, and, aside from brief, troubling glimpses spread across centuries, the papers would remain hidden from sight for more than seven generations.
In The Newton Papers, Sarah Dry illuminates the tangled history of these private writings over the course of nearly 300 years, from the long span of Newton's own life into the present day. The writings, on subjects ranging from secret alchemical formulas to impassioned rejections of the Holy Trinity, would eventually come to light as they moved through the hands of relatives, collectors, and scholars. The story of their disappearance, dispersal, and rediscovery is populated by a diverse cast of characters who pursued and possessed the papers, from economist John Maynard Keynes to controversial Jewish Biblical scholar Abraham Yahuda.
Dry's captivating narrative moves between these varied personalities, depicting how, as they chased the image of Newton through the thickets of his various obsessions, these men became obsessed themselves with the allure of defining the true Newton. Dry skillfully accounts for the ways with which Newton's pursuers have approached his papers over centuries.
Ultimately, The Newton Papers shows how Newton has been made and re-made throughout history by those seeking to reconcile the cosmic contradictions of an extraordinarily complex man.
Author Bio
I write about the history of science.
I am currently working on a book about the history of systems thinking. I am also a research associate on the Leverhulme-funded Making Climate History project at the University of Cambridge, where I am researching the emergence of the study of climate as an interdisciplinary science in the 1960s and 1970s, with a special focus on paleoclimatology.
My most recent is Waters of the World: The Story of the Scientists Who Unravelled the Mysteries of our Seas, Glaciers and Atmosphere–and Made the Planet Whole (Scribe UK/University of Chicago Press, 2019). It tells the stories of the scientists who have uncovered the mysteries of our oceans, atmosphere, icesheets and glaciers, and in doing so, helped us see the earth as an interconnected globe. It was awarded an inaugural Public Scholar grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in the US in 2015.
I have also written about the history of Isaac Newton’s manuscripts, epidemics and global health policy (back in 2010 we knew a lot), and about Victorian fishermen and risk.
I studied History and Literature of America at Harvard College as an undergraduate and have an MSc from the London Centre for History of Science, Technology and Medicine (Imperial College London, UCL and the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine). I have a PhD from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, where I was a Gates Scholar, and have held research positions at the London School of Economics and STEPS Centre at the Institute for Development Studies and SPRU.
From 2016 to 2021 I was a trustee of the Science Museum Group. I am currently a trustee of The Oxford Trust.
Source: SarahDry.com
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