Ramanujan - Essays and Surveys (Hardcover)

This volume contains original essays on Ramanujan and his work. It also includes survey articles in areas influenced by Ramanujan's mathematics. Most of the articles in the book are non-technical, but even those that are contain substantial sections that should engage the general reader. The opening section includes an account of a cryptic family history written by his younger brother, S. Lakshmi Narasimhan. Following are articles on Ramanujan's illness by R.A. Rankin, the British physician D.A.B. Young, and Nobel Laureate S. Chandrasekhar. They present a study of his symptoms, a convincing diagnosis of the cause of his death, and a thorough exposition of Ramanujan's life as a patient in English sanitariums and nursing homes. Following this are biographies of S. Janaki (Mrs. Ramanujan) and S. Narayana Iyer, Chief Accountant of the Madras Port Trust Office, who first communicated Ramanujan's work to the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society.