Eric Temple Bell (7 February 1883 – 21 December 1960) was a Scottish-born

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

, educator and

science fiction writer This is a list of notable science-fiction authors, in alphabetical order: A *Dafydd ab Hugh (born 1960) * Alexander Abasheli (1884–1954) *Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838–1926) *Kōbō Abe (1924–1993) * Robert Abernathy (1924–1990) *Dan ...

who lived in the United States for most of his life. He published non-fiction using his given name and fiction as John Taine.

Early life and education

Eric Temple Bell was born in

Peterhead Peterhead (; , ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is the council area's largest settlement, with a population of 19,060 at the 2022 Census for Scotland, 2022 Census. It is the largest fishing port in the United Kingdom for total landi ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, Scotland as third of three children to Helen Jane Lyall and James Bell Jr. His father, a

factor Factor (Latin, ) may refer to: Commerce * Factor (agent), a person who acts for, notably a mercantile and colonial agent * Factor (Scotland), a person or firm managing a Scottish estate * Factors of production, such a factor is a resource used ...

, relocated to

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

, in 1884, when Eric was fifteen months old. After his father died on 4 January 1896, the family returned to

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

, England. Bell was educated at

Bedford Modern School Bedford Modern School (often called BMS or simply Modern) is a Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference independent school in Bedford, England. The school has its origins in Bedford Charity, The Harpur Trust, born from the financial endowme ...

, where his teacher

Edward Mann Langley Edward Mann Langley (22 January 1851 – 9 June 1933) was a British mathematician, author of mathematical textbooks and founder of the Mathematical Gazette. He created the mathematical problem known as Langley’s Adventitious Angles. Biograp ...

inspired him to continue the study of mathematics. Bell returned to the United States, by way of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, in 1902. He received degrees from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

(1904), the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

(1908), and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

(1912) (where he was a student of

Cassius Jackson Keyser Cassius Jackson Keyser (15 May 1862 – 8 May 1947) was an American mathematician of pronounced philosophical inclinations. Life Keyser's initial higher education was at North West Ohio Normal School (now Ohio Northern University), then became ...

Career

Bell was part of the faculty first at the University of Washington and later at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

. While at the University of Washington, he taught

Howard P. Robertson Howard Percy "Bob" Robertson (January 27, 1903 – August 26, 1961) was an American mathematician and physicist known for contributions related to physical cosmology and the uncertainty principle. He was Professor of Mathematical Physics at the C ...

and encouraged him to enroll at Caltech for his doctoral studies. Bell researched

number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...

; see in particular

Bell series In mathematics, the Bell series is a formal power series used to study properties of arithmetical functions. Bell series were introduced and developed by Eric Temple Bell. Given an arithmetic function f and a prime p, define the formal power serie ...

. He attempted—not altogether successfully—to make the traditional

umbral calculus The term umbral calculus has two related but distinct meanings. In mathematics, before the 1970s, umbral calculus referred to the surprising similarity between seemingly unrelated polynomial equations and certain shadowy techniques used to prove ...

(understood at that time to be the same thing as the "symbolic method" of Blissard) logically rigorous. He also did much work using

generating function In mathematics, a generating function is a representation of an infinite sequence of numbers as the coefficients of a formal power series. Generating functions are often expressed in closed form (rather than as a series), by some expression invo ...

s, treated as formal

power series In mathematics, a power series (in one variable) is an infinite series of the form \sum_^\infty a_n \left(x - c\right)^n = a_0 + a_1 (x - c) + a_2 (x - c)^2 + \dots where ''a_n'' represents the coefficient of the ''n''th term and ''c'' is a co ...

, without concern for

convergence Convergence may refer to: Arts and media Literature *''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen *Convergence (comics), "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics: **A four-part crossover storyline that ...

. He is the eponym of the

Bell polynomials In combinatorial mathematics, the Bell polynomials, named in honor of Eric Temple Bell, are used in the study of set partitions. They are related to Stirling and Bell numbers. They also occur in many applications, such as in Faà di Bruno's for ...

and the

Bell number In combinatorial mathematics, the Bell numbers count the possible partitions of a set. These numbers have been studied by mathematicians since the 19th century, and their roots go back to medieval Japan. In an example of Stigler's law of epony ...

s of

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

. In 1924 Bell was awarded the

Bôcher Memorial Prize The Bôcher Memorial Prize was founded by the American Mathematical Society in 1923 in memory of Maxime Bôcher with an initial endowment of $1,450 (contributed by members of that society). It is awarded every three years (formerly every five yea ...

for his work in

mathematical analysis Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limit (mathematics), limits, and related theories, such as Derivative, differentiation, Integral, integration, measure (mathematics), measure, infinite sequences, series ( ...

. In 1927, he was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1937. He died in 1960 in

Watsonville, California Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, in the Monterey Bay Area of the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. The population was 52,590 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Predominantly Latino and ...

Work

Fiction and poetry

During the early 1920s, Bell wrote several long poems. He also wrote several

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

novels by the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

John Taine, which independently invented some of the earliest devices and ideas of science fiction. His novels later also serialised in magazines.

Basil Davenport Basil Davenport (1905–1966) was an American literary critic, academic, anthologist, and writer of science fiction novels and other genres. He was a member of the Baker Street Irregulars literary society. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky on Marc ...

, writing in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', described Taine as "one of the first real scientists to write science-fiction hodid much to bring it out of the interplanetary cops-and-robbers stage". But he concluded that "

aine Aine may refer to: * Áine, Irish goddess of summer, wealth and sovereignty * Áine (given name), an Irish female given name * Aine, Dahanu, a village in Maharashtra, India * Hugo Aine, French footballer * Princess Aine, a character in Mark Millar ...

is sadly lacking as a novelist, in style and especially in characterization".

Writing about mathematics

Bell wrote a book of biographical essays titled ''

Men of Mathematics ''Men of Mathematics: The Lives and Achievements of the Great Mathematicians from Zeno to Poincaré'' is a book on the history of mathematics published in 1937 by Scottish-born American mathematician and science fiction writer E. T. Bell (1883� ...

'' (one chapter of which was the first popular account of the 19th century mathematician

Sofya Kovalevskaya Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (; born Korvin-Krukovskaya; – 10 February 1891) was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differential equations and mechanics. She was a pioneer for women in mathematics a ...

), which is still in print. He originally wrote it under the title ''The Lives of Mathematicians'', but the publishers,

Simon and Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

, cut about a third of it (125,000 words), and, in order to tie in with their book ''Men of Art'' (by

Thomas Craven Thomas Craven (January 6, 1888 – February 27, 1969) was an American author, critic and lecturer, who promoted the work of American Regionalist painters, Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood, among others. He was known for hi ...

), gave it the title ''Men of Mathematics'' which he did not like.Reid, pp. 276–277 The book inspired notable mathematicians including

Julia Robinson Julia Hall Bowman Robinson (December 8, 1919July 30, 1985) was an American mathematician noted for her contributions to the fields of computability theory and computational complexity theory—most notably in decision problems. Her work on Hilber ...

John Forbes Nash, Jr. John Forbes Nash Jr. (June 13, 1928 – May 23, 2015), known and published as John Nash, was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, real algebraic geometry, differential geometry, and partial differenti ...

, and

Andrew Wiles Sir Andrew John Wiles (born 11 April 1953) is an English mathematician and a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford, specialising in number theory. He is best known for Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, proving Ferma ...

to begin careers in mathematics. However, historians of mathematics have disputed the accuracy of much of Bell's history. In fact, Bell does not distinguish carefully between anecdote and history. He has been much criticized for romanticizing

Évariste Galois Évariste Galois (; ; 25 October 1811 – 31 May 1832) was a French mathematician and political activist. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by Nth root, ...

. For example: " . T.Bell's account f Galois's life by far the most famous, is also the most fictitious". His treatment of

Georg Cantor Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor ( ; ; – 6 January 1918) was a mathematician who played a pivotal role in the creation of set theory, which has become a foundations of mathematics, fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor establi ...

, which reduced Cantor's relationships with his father and with

Leopold Kronecker Leopold Kronecker (; 7 December 1823 – 29 December 1891) was a German mathematician who worked on number theory, abstract algebra and logic, and criticized Georg Cantor's work on set theory. Heinrich Weber quoted Kronecker as having said, ...

to stereotypes, has been criticized even more severely. While this book was under printing, he also wrote and had published another book, ''The Handmaiden of the Sciences''. Bell's later book ''Development of Mathematics'' has been less famous, but his biographer Constance Reid finds it has fewer weaknesses. His book on

Fermat's Last Theorem In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive number, positive integers , , and satisfy the equation for any integer value of greater than . The cases ...

, ''The Last Problem'', was published the year after his death and is a hybrid of social history and the history of mathematics. It inspired mathematician

to solve the problem. In his book about

Paul Erdős Paul Erdős ( ; 26March 191320September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in discrete mathematics, g ...

, titled ''

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers ''The Man Who Loved Only Numbers'' is a biography of mathematician Paul Erdős written by Paul Hoffman. The book was first published on July 15, 1998, by Hyperion Books as a hardcover edition. A paperback edition appeared in 1999. The book is ...

'', Paul Hoffman wrote:

Non-fiction books

* ''An Arithmetical Theory of Certain Numerical Functions'', Seattle Washington, The University, 1915, 50p
PDF/DjVu copy
from

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

.
'' The Cyclotomic Quinary Quintic''
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, The New Era Printing Company, 1912, 97p. * ''Algebraic Arithmetic'', New York, American Mathematical Society, 1927, 180p. * ''Debunking Science'', Seattle, University of Washington book store, 1930, 40p.
''The Queen of the Sciences''
Stechert, 1931, 138p. * ''Numerology'', Baltimore: The Williams & Wilkins Co., 1933, 187p. ** Reprint: Westport, CT:

Hyperion Press Hyperion Press was an American publishing company, based in Westport, Connecticut. In the 1970s, it published science fiction and science fiction studies including reissues of several books first published by World Publ. Co. of Cleveland and clas ...

, 1979, , 187p. – "Reprint of the ed. published by Century Co., New York" * ''The Search for Truth'', Baltimore, Reynal and Hitchcock, 1934, 279p. ** Reprint: Williams and Wilkins Co, 1935
''The Handmaiden of the Sciences''

Williams & Wilkins Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) is an American imprint of the American Dutch publishing conglomerate Wolters Kluwer. It was established by the acquisition of Williams & Wilkins and its merger with J.B. Lippincott Company in 1998. Under the L ...

, 1937, 216p. * ''Man and His Lifebelts'', New York, Reynal & Hitchcock, 1938, 340p. ** Reprint: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1935, 2nd printing 1946 ** Reprint: Kessinger Publishing, 2005 * ''

'', New York, Simon & Schuster, 1937, 592p. ** Reprint: Touchstone (Simon & Schuster paperback), 1986. * ''The Development of Mathematics'', New York, McGraw–Hill, 1940, 637p. **Second Edition: New York, McGraw–Hill, 1945, 637p. **Reprint: Dover Publications, 1992 * ''The Magic of Numbers'', Whittlesey House, 1946, 418p. **Reprint: New York,

Dover Publications Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, book ...

, 1991, , 418p. **Reprint: Sacred Science Institute, 2006 * ''Mathematics: Queen and Servant of Science'',

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

, 1951, 437p. * ''The Last Problem'', New York,

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

, 1961, 308p. ** Reprint:

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

, 1990, , 326p.

Scholarly papers

* "Arithmetical paraphrases". In: ''Transactions of the American Mathematical Society'' 22, 1921
pp. 1–30
an
198–219

"Arithmetical equivalents for a remarkable identity between theta functions"
In: ''Mathematische Zeitschrift'' 13, 1922, pp. 146–152
"Existence theorems on the numbers of representations of odd integers as sums of 4''t'' + 2 squares"
In: ''Crelles Journal'' 163, 1930, pp. 65–70 * "Exponential numbers". In: ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' 41, 1934, pp. 411–419

Novels

* ''The Purple Sapphire'' (1924) * ''The Gold Tooth'' (1927) * ''Quayle's Invention'' (1927) * ''

Green Fire ''Green Fire'' is a 1954 American CinemaScope and Eastmancolor adventure film, adventure drama (film and television), drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Andrew Marton and produced by Armand Deutsch, with original musi ...

'' (1928) * ''The Greatest Adventure'' (1929) * '' The Iron Star'' (1930) * ''The White Lily'' (1930) * ''

The Time Stream ''The Time Stream'' is a science fiction novel by American writer John Taine (pseudonym of Eric Temple Bell). The novel was originally serialized in four parts in the magazine ''Wonder Stories'' beginning in December 1931. It was first publis ...

'' (1931) * '' Seeds of Life'' (1931) * '' Before the Dawn'' (1934) * ''Tomorrow'' (1939) * '' The Forbidden Garden'' (1947) * ''

The Cosmic Geoids and One Other ''The Cosmic Geoids and One Other'' is a collection of two science fiction novellas by author John Taine (pseudonym of American writer Eric Temple Bell). It was first published in 1949 by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. in an edition of 1,200 co ...

'' (1949) * '' The Crystal Horde'' (1952) * '' G.O.G. 666'' (1954)

Poetry

* ''The Singer'' (1916)

References

Sources

* Reid, Constance (1993). ''The Search for E. T. Bell, Also Known as John Taine''. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America. x + 372 pp. . . * Rothman, T. (1982). "Genius and biographers: the fictionalization of Evariste Galois". ''American Mathematics Monthly'' 89, no. 2, 84–106.

External links

Biographical sketch by Constance Reid
* * *

* * (distinct from Bell) * (distinct from Taine)
Author profile
in the database

zbMATH zbMATH Open, formerly Zentralblatt MATH, is a major reviewing service providing reviews and abstracts for articles in pure and applied mathematics, produced by the Berlin office of FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastru ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Eric Temple 1883 births 1960 deaths People educated at Bedford Modern School 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American mathematicians American science fiction writers Scottish science fiction writers American historians of mathematics Scottish emigrants to the United States Scottish mathematicians Combinatorialists Mathematics popularizers Presidents of the Mathematical Association of America 20th-century Scottish writers American male novelists Stanford University alumni University of Washington alumni Columbia University alumni University of Washington faculty California Institute of Technology faculty People from Peterhead People from Watsonville, California Scottish novelists Novelists from California Novelists from Washington (state) Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the American Philosophical Society