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Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman Paperback – November 2, 1993

by James Gleick (Author)

4.5 1,596 ratings

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To his colleagues, Richard Feynman was not so much a genius as he was a full-blown magician: someone who “does things that nobody else could do and that seem completely unexpected.” The path he cleared for twentieth-century physics led from the making of the atomic bomb to a Nobel Prize-winning theory of quantam electrodynamics to his devastating exposé of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. At the same time, the ebullient Feynman established a reputation as an eccentric showman, a master safe cracker and bongo player, and a wizard of seduction.

Now James Gleick, author of the bestselling Chaos, unravels teh dense skein of Feynman‘s thought as well as the paradoxes of his character in a biography—which was nominated for a National Book Award—of outstanding lucidity and compassion.

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Amazon.com Review

If you've read any of Richard Feynman's wonderful autobiographies you may think that a biography of Feynman would be a waste of your time. Wrong! Gleick's Genius is a masterpiece of scientific biography--and an inspiration to anyone in pursuit of their own fulfillment as a person of genius. Deservedly nominated for a National Book Award, underservedly passed over by the committee in the face of tough competition, and very deservedly a book that you must read.

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[A] rare, jewel-like biography... terrifically readable. It achieves an almost perfect balance between the physicist's work and his life... Gleick [is a] consummate craftsman. -- Washington Post Book World

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (November 2, 1993)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 531 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679747044
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679747048
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.22 x 1.23 x 7.9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #412,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #303 in History of Technology
- #416 in Quantum Theory (Books)
- #903 in Scientist Biographies

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4.5 1,596 ratings

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James Gleick

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James Gleick was born in New York and began his career in journalism, working as an editor and reporter for the New York Times. He covered science and technology there, chronicling the rise of the Internet as the Fast Forward columnist, and in 1993 founded an Internet startup company called The Pipeline. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

His home page is at http://around.com, and on Twitter he is @JamesGleick.

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Customers say

Customers find the book fascinating and informative. They praise the writing quality as well-researched and deftly written. The book holds their interest throughout with its interesting topics and captivating portrait of a remarkable central figure. However, opinions differ on the physics content - some find it understandable and clear, while others find it difficult to understand and technical at times. There are also mixed views on the humor aspect - some find it unique and friendly, while others describe him as eccentric and irreverent.

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Biography quality Writing quality Interest Portrait quality Physics content Humor Length Character development

145 customers mention "Biography quality"141 positive4 negative

Customers enjoy the biography. They find it interesting and well-researched, describing Feynman's life and scientific work in detail. The book portrays him as an interesting man and a scientific genius.

"...An important work about an important man who is not overly taken with his own Importance." Read more

"...I certainly learned a lot about this brilliant, down to earth man. I thank the author." Read more

"...It's all here. Feynman's prodigal math skills and his oracular brilliance in his field; his titanic rivalries; particularly the long, sometimes..." Read more

"...He weaves in all the elements we could hope for: biographic details on Feynman which give a coherent sense of the man and his life, insights into..." Read more

70 customers mention "Writing quality"62 positive8 negative

Customers appreciate the writing quality of the book. They find it well-written with a breadth of knowledge and balanced subject matter. The author uses simple analogies and deft language to outline developments. Readers are fascinated by the author's style and understanding of the material. The book is readable, with few in-text images, and has a sense of clarity.

"...Gleick actually understood, and then translated the scientific concepts of subatomic physics for a lay audience...." Read more

"...The author has done a good job, but some of the science requires a lot of concentration...." Read more

"...genius, but also lets us follow the birth and maturation of particle/quantum physics...." Read more

"...He had this sense of clarity - the ability to sift through a matter and break it down into its essential components, discarding the superfluous...." Read more

24 customers mention "Interest"20 positive4 negative

Customers find the book interesting and enlightening. They appreciate the author's choice of worthwhile topics and find it educational. Readers mention the book keeps their interest throughout, is educational, and never boring.

"...'s memoirs and was intrigued and entertained by this man with a curious mind and a way of thinking that was light years ahead of his contemporaries...." Read more

"...It's a long book, 500+ pages, and I was never bored. I think I like knowing "about" Feynman...." Read more

"...It clearly shows the impact parents can have in encouraging curiosity in children...." Read more

"I enjoy James Gleick's work. He is an excellent writer, chooses worthwhile topics, and is a joy to read. This particular book is no exception...." Read more

13 customers mention "Portrait quality"13 positive0 negative

Customers find the book offers an amazing and detailed portrait of Feynman. They appreciate the riveting looks at his family, culture, and community. The book provides charming details and relevant historical information about the genius. Readers describe the portrayal as informative and engaging, describing him as a unique figure in American science.

"...appears near the end of the book: "They knew they had a remarkable central figure, a scientist who prided himself not on his achievements in..." Read more

"...author nevertheless manages to capture the irreverent spirit and ebullient persona of this larger-than-life physicist while using everyday language..." Read more

"...a major figure in U.S. physics and wartime contribution with riveting looks at family, culture, community, intellectuals, America, and downright..." Read more

"...I have found this book to be an excellent, inciteful portrayal of the genius Feynman and the others." Read more

41 customers mention "Physics content"24 positive17 negative

Customers have different views on the physics content. Some find it understandable and clear, with good explanations of concepts. Others find the science difficult to understand, technical, and tedious at times.

"It was so helpful to have a scientist, write this biography. Gleick actually understood, and then translated the scientific concepts of subatomic..." Read more

"...The author has done a good job, but some of the science requires a lot of concentration...." Read more

"...From a technical standpoint, he had a formidably deep feel for mathematics going far beyond just manipulating symbols, and he had a similarly..." Read more

"...Unfortunately, though, the book is bogged down in long sections of technical abstraction...." Read more

16 customers mention "Humor"9 positive7 negative

Customers have different views on the humor in the book. Some find it unique and entertaining, describing Feynman as an eccentric, lovable comic genius. Others feel the style is pompous and unenjoyable, not quite as interesting, and less funny and engaging than Surely You're Joking. Overall, opinions are mixed regarding the humor's quality.

"...This is a fascinating book about an irreverent, uniquely American genius. Highly recommended!" Read more

"...in depth than "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman", but not quite as interesting." Read more

"...himself during his own lifetime as an eccentric, lovable, and comic man who also happened to be a genius...." Read more

"Very dense - for a physicist - boring for anyone else. I couldn't finish it, although there were a few (very few) bright moments...." Read more

8 customers mention "Length"3 positive5 negative

Customers have differing views on the book's length. Some find it engaging and thorough, while others consider it too long and overly detailed.

"This is a very long book, but totally intriguing the whole way. When I had a year of physics in college, I had to use Feynman's book as a textbook...." Read more

"...It's a long book, 500+ pages, and I was never bored. I think I like knowing "about" Feynman...." Read more

"A little long winded in parts. An American genius" Read more

"This is good but my goodness it is long. It is not so much about Richard Feynman as about the entire history of the physics he was involved in...." Read more

6 customers mention "Character development"4 positive2 negative

Customers have different views on the character development. Some find it excellent and interesting, portraying Feynman as a true genius. However, others feel that Gleick doesn't give Feynmann a personality other than that of a man seeking knowledge. They also mention that there is too much filler and not enough focus on Feynman's outstanding achievements.

"...was a great genius and an interesting man, and Gleick portrays both very well in this book. Another great work by Gleick...." Read more

"...Gleick doesn't give Feynmann a personality other than that of a man who is searching for the ultimate truth and wanted to see the laws of the..." Read more

"...The insights into his personal life and character were excellent and key to my rating...." Read more

"...to read the same chapter more than once, but it is an excellent portrayal of a true genius." Read more

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T. Boyce
Genius
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2024
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It was so helpful to have a scientist, write this biography. Gleick actually understood, and then translated the scientific concepts of subatomic physics for a lay audience.

The section on the concept of “genius” is outstanding. It could stand on its own and contains amazing insights.

An important work about an important man who is not overly taken with his own Importance.

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Henry Rosenberg MD
very good
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2023
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It’s tough trying to relate a life that a person lived combined with his contributions to physics. The author has done a good job, but some of the science requires a lot of concentration.
I certainly learned a lot about this brilliant, down to earth man. I thank the author.

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Joshua G. Feldman
Beautiful, personal, multifaceted biography of the man at the heart of American quantum physics in the 20th century: Feynman.
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2011
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I picked this up because I'm a big fan of James Gleick, who I consider one of the best science writers around. His book on chaos theory, Chaos: Making a New Science, changed my life back in the 1980s. His special strength is that he glosses the mathematical tough stuff without losing the interesting heart of the topics at hand. I imagined that he was going to provide some deep insights into Richard Feynman's physics - and Gleick doesn't disappoint here - but this isn't the heart of this book. The heart of this book is Feynman the man - and that makes this much more a biography than a science book. It's tough to write a biography of Richard Feynman because Feynman did such a good job of bringing his personality to the public at large, in famous books of anecdotes such as Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character). Gleick doesn't skip this charming content, but he puts it in a larger context of the details of Richard Feynman's life: his loves, his career, his challenges and triumphs. It's all here. Feynman's prodigal math skills and his oracular brilliance in his field; his titanic rivalries; particularly the long, sometimes collaborative one with the equally impressive Murray Gell-Mann at Cal-Tech. Gleick gives us a balanced account, moving smoothly from Feynman's colorful childhood in Far Rockaway to MIT to Princeton and his collaboration with his advisor and mentor, the great Archibald Wheeler. We get inside his tragic love with his first wife, Arline - which helps us understand his subsequent almost predatory lady killer ways before he finally settles down. We get deep inside his work on the Manhattan Project where his math genius and special skills on pragmatic real world problems were shown in high relief, along with his disregard for authority, sense of humor, and even his pathos. At the end we find him terminally ill (his recurrent cancers perhaps a distant consequence of his work with radioactive materials) but still the one with the penetrating eye for the heart of the problem and an iconoclastic disregard for sacred cows who cut to the heart of the issue of the Challenger disaster.

I was expecting a dissection of Quantum Electrodynamics from Gleick. We get a little bit of that - but ultimately we get a living, breathing human being, drumming away with relentless energy and precise measured timing. This is a tour de force work of biography. Months later, I am still haunted by it. Feynman had such a rare set of abilities, yet ultimately he was all flesh and blood and mortal. As the world reels from the huge challenges ahead I find myself aching for someone like Feynman to slice into the biggest problems with such ninja flair. I put this in my top ten books I've read in the last decade.

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Camber
An engrossing story about a brilliant boy who never quite grew up
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2009
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To my mind, this book certainly establishes James Gleick as a master of scientific biography. He weaves in all the elements we could hope for: biographic details on Feynman which give a coherent sense of the man and his life, insights into other famous people he interacted with (Gell-Mann, Oppenheimer, etc.), and plenty of substantive information on the ideas and development of 20th-century physics. And Gleick presents all of this through a buttery-smooth narrative which enabled me to glide along almost effortlessly, making this long book go by fairly quickly. I certainly recommend this book to anyone interested in Feynman or 20th-century physics, or who just enjoys reading a well-written biography of an interesting person.

Now let me offer a few personal thoughts on my impression of Feynman. From a technical standpoint, he had a formidably deep feel for mathematics going far beyond just manipulating symbols, and he had a similarly strong intuitive grasp of physical behavior, apparently related to a burning curiosity to understand how the physical world works. He combined this theoretical and intuitive power with a relentless creative drive, which resulted in development of quite original and useful mathematical and mechanistic models (eg, Feynman diagrams). Moreover, his creativity was linked to an individualistic and sometimes iconoclastic need to do things his own way, so he tended to avoid studying the work of others, didn't really collaborate much with colleages, and even periodically reorganized established knowledge in his own way (hence the Feynman lectures on physics).

But Feynman's curiosity was a bounded curiosity, as he seemed to have little interest in much beyond physics. This made him something of an uncultured philistine, with a resulting overall immaturity and (dare I say it) shallowness. We see this in Feynman's somewhat self-indulgent personality, as evidenced by a kind of defiant roughness and rudeness, episodes of selfishness, and considerable womanizing, sometimes with wives of colleagues (perhaps he was just never able to recover from the tragic loss of his first wife?).

In the end, I think Feynman was shaped as much by his limitations as his strengths. His unique combination of curiosity, technical ability, individualism, creativity, and passion gave him unique potential, and his limitations focused that potential in a productive direction. He seems to have been reasonably happy overall in his life, and he certainly helped make the world a more interesting place, so perhaps it was all for the best.

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Amazon Customer
Excellent Book
Reviewed in Canada on November 29, 2020
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This is an excellent piece of literature. It does take longer to read than most other books, as it forces you to process the information being discussed. Personally, I enjoyed the mental stimulation it provided. Overall it is very well written and provides meaningful insight into Richard Feynman's life.

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Amazon Customer
A tribute that does justice...
Reviewed in India on July 22, 2022
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I have put off reading this book for decades, having read Surely You're Joking... long ago. It is a book to be read when you have time, time to linger, to read and re-read and appreciate the point of view that made him who he was. All I can say is that it doesn't disappoint in any part.

A sublime experience.

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Douglas Teixeira
Muito bom, mas de difícil leitura
Reviewed in Brazil on October 4, 2017
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O livro conta a história do físico Richard Feynman e traz um panorama dos desenvolvimentos da física no século passado. Como os demais livros do James Gleick, este livro é bem escrito e interessante, mas é bastante denso em alguns pontos (principalmente nas explicações dos conceitos físicos), o que torna a leitura difícil. Mas no geral o livro é muito bom. E o Richard Feynman é uma pessoa interessantíssima!

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Liam
Essentially great, if occasionally wondering off topic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 22, 2019
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This book seems incredibly well researched and although some of the ideas are complex, I think they are well explained. It also offers nice insights to Feynman's mind, and I especially enjoyed the segway where he learnt to crack safes and essentially used logic to more or less be able to access most of the safes at a research centre for the nuclear bomb. There's a number of these where Feynman demonstrates his mischievousness.

That said, occasionally the book meanders a little too off topic. There's literally a 30 page segment on what constitutes a genius around page 300 that for me was like wading through treacle. Perhaps that's a worthy thing to explore, but not here, and it's not done especially well, offering nothing really new. A sop to the book title, I thought... I don't think it's needed at all to clumsily demonstrate just what a genius Feynman was when the rest of the book establishes it plenty. There's a time and a place for the thoughts of Dyson or Oppenheimer, or a funny anecdote or a quote, but this just seemed overblown.

I considered giving it 4 stars but that felt harsh, and I couldn't do 4.5, so it squeaks in with 5. Seriously good, insightful and informative. You really start to appreciate just what Feynman did, leading a team into the explosive components in the atom bomb before he was 25, redefining quantum physics, improving nuclear storage processes (something the author states people working with it were sure he'd saved their lives) to the rocket programme.

As such I would totally recommend. It explains not only Feynman but those central to his life. I have subsequently started reading up on Freeman Dyson, but there's tonnes of other characters to explore.

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César Gámez
A true scientist
Reviewed in Mexico on August 26, 2017
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Very well written and documented. I enjoyed it. While learning about his life and achievements, also learned some physics too.

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Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman Paperback – November 2, 1993

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5.0 out of 5 stars Genius

4.0 out of 5 stars very good

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, personal, multifaceted biography of the man at the heart of American quantum physics in the 20th century: Feynman.

5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing story about a brilliant boy who never quite grew up

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book

5.0 out of 5 stars A tribute that does justice...

5.0 out of 5 stars Muito bom, mas de difícil leitura

5.0 out of 5 stars Essentially great, if occasionally wondering off topic

5.0 out of 5 stars A true scientist

Genius

very good

Beautiful, personal, multifaceted biography of the man at the heart of American quantum physics in the 20th century: Feynman.

An engrossing story about a brilliant boy who never quite grew up

Excellent Book

A tribute that does justice...

Muito bom, mas de difícil leitura

Essentially great, if occasionally wondering off topic

A true scientist