The Corner

Elementary, My Dear Derb

For the fast-dwindling number of Americans who have not yet purchased Prime

Obsession: A reader who is actually a mathematician happened to overhear

Arthur Jaffe (Professor of Math at Harvard University) opining on the book’s

merit’s, thus: “Quite good… but elementary.” I could not be more

pleased. If I have made the Riemann Hypothesis elementary, I have done my

work well. (I do acknowledge, though, that the word “elementary” may not

have quite the same significance for a Harvard math professor that it has

for the rest of us…)

John Derbyshire — Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.
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