Further reading - The Life of Euler

     To date, there are no biographies of Euler in English, and no full-length biographies of Euler in any language. The good news is that there are some short works avaiable. The better news is that several new biographies of Euler will be appearing in 2006 and 2007, to coincide with the tercentennial of Euler's birth.

  • Fellmann, Emil A.  Leonhard Euler.  Hamburg, 1995.
    A chronological recounting of Euler's life, Fellmann's work is a very accessible biography of Euler, and avoids technical details by being "entirely formula free". This book contains much interesting information, but is necessarily limited from deep historical analysis by its brevity (156 pages). This biography is written in German, but an English translation by Erika and Walter Gautschi will be published by Birkhäuser Basel in December 2006.
  • Thiele, Rüdiger.  Leonhard Euler.  Leipzig, 1982.
    The first modern biography of Euler. Thiele's work is a concise (110 pages) but interesting read. Thiele's work is a much more balanced biography than those from the early 20th century (See du Pasquier and -- below). This biography is written in German, and has not been translated into English.
  • Fueter, Rudolf.  Leonhard Euler.  Basel, 1948
    This is a very short (24 pages) and little known (we've never seen it referenced) biography of Euler, written as part of Birkhäuser-Verlag's Kurze Mathematiker-Biographien series.
  • du Pasquier, G.  Euler et Ses Amis.  Paris, 1927
    A complete, but slightly eulogistic, biography of Euler published in French, this book also contains some good information about Euler's contemporaries. This book has long been out of print, but it is being reprinted, along with a translation (Euler and his Friends) by John Glaus of The Euler Society in 2006.
  • Rudio, Ferdinand.  Leonhard Euler.  Zürich: Zürcher & Furrer, 1909.
    Paperback, bound with staples, approximately 6" x 9". A short 15-page biography of Euler in German. This booklet is a reprint of the text of an address that Rudio gave in 1883 at a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Euler's death. Rudio was a founding member of the editorial committee of the Opera Omnia and edited several of the early volumes, including some on number theory.


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