The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn [Paperback]

Philip J. Davis (Author), Marguerite Dorian (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1989

In a highly personal story that spans centuries, continents, cultures, and scholarly disciplines, the author discusses answers to a variety of stimulating questions and binds them all into a coherent and entertaining whole. Halftone and line drawings.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Find a thread and follow it," urges Davis ( Thomas Gray, Philosopher Cat ), professor of applied mathematics at Brown, at the outset of these self-indulgent, often coy divagations inspired by an academic quibble about the transliteration of the name of a 19th-century Russian mathematician. Like an encyclopedist run wild, Davis leaps by the merest of associations from one bit of mathematical history to another, and from these into an apparently infinite plane of intellectual and cultural history: 10th-century nun Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, Sikkimese shamans, Coptic proper nouns all surface. The information is fairly interesting, at times startling. The book itself, however, falls flat. Its theses--that historical events progress only circuitously; that "not the truth, but the search for the truth; the process, the method, that is what matters"--are far from new, and Davis's self-referential ramblings neither electrify his stores of fact nor stimulate the reader. Here is a prodigious mind playing solitaire.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 124 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt; 2 Sub edition (October 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156901404
• ISBN-13: 978-0156901406
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,169,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and very funny., October 27, 1999

By 

W. Watson (Nevada City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn (Hardcover)

I read this book some 10 or more years ago. It's very interesting and very funny. The story starts when the author reads a glowing review of his doctoral thesis. There is, HOWEVER, a catch, and it leads the author on a quest for the correct spelling of the mathematician Chebychev's name. I haven't read any of the author's other books, but I'd say he does pretty well, and would expect good and humorous things from him.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book - unfortunately unknown and relegated, September 10, 2007

By 

Suvro Ghosh (Austin, TX, USA.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn (Paperback)

If you are a science or math person, by which, I should clarify, I mean, someone who loves to get his hand on a good book, then by all means, this book is for you to crave. Philip Davis should be congratulated for writing this book.

There are books and there are books, and often, in these brand new days of marketing, we miss the chance to savor some of the best works, for lack of that very thing - either a fault of the publisher, or some other standard possibilities that exist, that are unknown to me.

This book is a funny account of the matter of the spelling of the name of a Russian scientist, but did I say it was funny. If you are put off by the word funny, let me restate this as - a book that is thin as a pancake with some explosive humorous material - not in the same league as Dave Barry or George Carlin, but in its own right, in a more academically fostered way. Then there are some great cartoons that, in their own right, should be mentioned as an added incentive to add this book to your collection of mathematical books. To that end we should thank Miss Dorian.


I am still upset over the fact, why, we the readers of books, who diverge greatly from the median population in our voraciousness of appetite, cannot get hold of these gems, and have to depend on frail probabilities to chance on them.

Hopefully, I haven't given anything away, and hopefully, by the time you read this, there will be some books available to read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slow and delicious, February 14, 2008

By 

Charan "clwrites" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Thread: A Mathematical Yarn (Paperback)

I just found my copy while cleaning my shelves. It was buried under some other books. And I remember why I still have it. What a wonderful, simply just wonderful book. I wouldn't give it up for nothing. If you can get a copy, buy it you will find it is book to cherish.
I am a scientist, so the quest to find the real spelling of Chebychev was a wonderful thread.
A book to cherish!!