A Russian Childhood

In the year 1889 Sofya Vasilievna Kovalevskaya, Profes­ sor of Mathematics at the University of Skholm, pub­ lished her recollections of growing up in mid-nineteenth century Russia. Professor Kovalevskaya was already an international celebrity, and partly for the wrong reasons: less as the distinguished mathematician she actually was than as a "mathematical lady"-a bizarre but fascinating phenomenon.* Her book was an immediate success. She had written it in Russian, but its first publicatio...