"Mesmerizing.... As this vibrant biography so beautifully elucidates, the truth of a life cant ever be proven; it can only be shown." -- Jennifer Szalai - New York Times Book Review "[ Budiansky] writes vividly, and the book overflows with fascinating detail.... Enthralling." -- David Edmonds - Wall Street Journal "Wonderfully engrossing." -- Adam Gopnik - The New Yorker "Journey to the Edge of Reason is an intimate and haunting portrait of one of the most elusive gods on Princetons Mt. Olympus. A triumph of research and a wonderful read." -- Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind "Kurt Gödels mathematical results on incompleteness and undecidable propositions leave it up to us, as individuals, to choose whether to mourn these limits to the power of formal systems, or celebrate his proof that even the most rigid numerical bureaucracy contains the tools by which higher truth will always be able to effect an escape. Stephen Budianskys Journey to the Edge of Reason expertly and humanely frames these results between Gödels childhood under the dark shadow of the Austrian and Nazi bureaucracies, his escape to America, his descent into physical and mental illness, and his achievement of a reconciliation between spiritual faith and scientific proof." -- George Dyson, author of Analogia and Turings Cathedral "Expansive ... places [ Gödels] achievements in their social and political context." -- The New Yorker "A painstakingly researched and lucidly presented biographya close-up of one of the most influential and enigmatic thinkers of the twentieth centuryfull of vivid detail and sharp historical insight." -- Karl Sigmund, professor of mathematics, University of Vienna, and author of Exact Thinking in Demented Times "A brilliant biography of one of the most original thinkers of all time, Journey to the Edge of Reason is as deep and precise as the genius it describes. In a paradox befitting Gödel himself, it takes a tale of logic and its limits and finds, at its heart, something strangely soulful and sympathetic." -- Steven Strogatz, professor of mathematics, Cornell University, and author of Infinite Powers "Terrific.... An outstanding biography of a man of incomprehensible brilliance." -- Kirkus, starred review "Gödel comes through as a brilliant though tragic figure in Budianskys richly descriptive prose. This captivating portrait of a great if neurotic mind hits the mark." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "Budiansky exposes the social and political influences that shaped the life of this brilliant Austrian mathematician.... But Budianskys greater accomplishment is that of penetrating a mind that reoriented the entire mathematical world.... A portrait remarkable for both its intellectual depth and for its compassion." -- Booklist, starred review "Remarkable.... A singular virtue of this well-researched and well-written book is that Budiansky takes his subjects life as seriously as his mathematical work.... Readers shouldnt be discouraged by the complexity of Go¨dels mathematics; this is the first major biography of the brilliant yet tragic figure and, in all respects, a first-rate one." -- Library Journal, starred review
