Robert Rankin

Ramanujan: Letters and Commentary

1. IDEA 1

   A clerk wrote to Cambridge

   The book begins with Ramanujan's letters to G. H. Hardy, sent while he worked as a clerk in Madras. He listed remarkable formulas with little proof, asking for help to publish his work.

2. IDEA 2

   Hardy recognised genius quickly

   The editors describe how Hardy and his colleague Littlewood studied the strange formulas and decided their author must be a mathematician of the highest class. Some results were known, but many were new and astonishing.

3. IDEA 3

   Patrons in Madras made a difference

   The letters show how officials and teachers in Madras helped Ramanujan with a scholarship and support. Without these local patrons, his talent might have stayed unnoticed in a small office.

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