About the Book
A collection of the many biographies of scientist Isaac Newton, demonstrating the ways in which his reputation continued to develop in the centuries after his death. It includes private letters, poetry and memoranda, and explores the debate over Newton's reputation, work and personal life.
Table of Contents:
Volume 1 Eighteenth Century Biography of Isaac Newton; the unpublished manuscripts and early texts * Short-writing (1662); expenses (1661-8) * Flamsteed autobiog./ history of observatory etc. * Flamsteed suppressed preface of Historia Coelestis (from 1717) * Conduitt material (I) (a) Mason to Conduitt (JC), (Keynes Ms. 134), (23 March 1726/7) (b) JC to Fontenelle and Horace Walpole, (K. Ms. 129D), (27 March 1727) (c) John Craig to JC, (K. Ms. 132), (7 April 1727) (d) Fontenelle to JC, (K. Ms. 129E), (14 April 1727) (e) Stukeley to JC, (K. Ms. 136(2)), (26 June 1727) (f) Stukeley to Richard Mead, (K. Ms. 136(3)), (26 June 1727) (g) Mead to JC, (K. Ms. 136(4)), (7 July 1727) (h) Stukeley to JC, (K. Ms. 136(5)) (i) JC to Fontenelle, (K. Ms. 129F), (c.21 July 21 1727) (j) Stukeley to JC, (K. Ms. 136(8)), (22 July 1727) (k) JC to Fontenelle, (K. Ms. 129G), (31 July 1727) (l) JC to Fontenelle, (K. Ms. 129B), (October 1727) (m) JC to Fontenelle, (K. Ms. 129A), (October 1727) (n) JC to Fontenelle, (K. Ms. 129H), (date unclear) (o) JC to Fontenelle, (K. Ms. 129C), (October 1727) * Fontenelle's Eloge (English trans. 1728) * Conduitt material (II) (a) Fontenelle to JC, (K. Ms. 129I), ( 15 November 1727 ) (b) JC to Fontenelle, (K. Ms. 129J), ( 23 November 1727 ) (d) Nicholas Wickins to JC, (K. Ms. 137), (16 January 1727/8) (e) Stukeley to JC, (K. Ms. 136(1)), (16. January 1727/8) (f) Humphrey Newton to JC, (K. Ms. 135), (17. January to 14 Feb. 1727 /8) (g) Conduitt circular letter, (K. Ms. 131(1)), (6 February 1727/8) (h) Stukeley to JC, (K. Ms. 136(6)), (16 February 1727/8) (i) Stukeley to JC, (K. Ms. 136(7)), (29 February 1727/8) * The de Moivre memorandum * Pemberton's View of Newton's Philosophy (1728) * Whiston's view of Newton from his Collection of Authentick Records (1728) * Conduitt material (III) (a) Conduitt's 'Life' of Newton in various drafts, (K. Ms.130.1-130.16) (b) Conduitt to McSwinney, (K. Ms. 131(2)), (4 June 1729) (c) McSwinney to Conduitt, (K. Ms. 131 (3), (27 September 1730) (d) de Vibain to JC, (K. Ms. 131(4)), (1730) (e) William Derham to JC, (K. Ms. 133), (18 July 1733) * Conti account of 1715 interview with Newton * Stukeley 'Memoirs' (Grantham Museum Ms. A) * Stukeley '1752 Memoirs' (RS Ms. 142 with Grantham Museum Ms. B variants) Volume 2 Nineteenth Century Biography of Isaac Newton; public debate and private controversy Translation of J B Biot's 'Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Newton', Biographie Universelle (1822) by H C Elphinstone in A Life of Sir Isaac Newton (1829); T Galloway, 'French and English biographies of Newton', Foreign Quarterly Review (1833); T Galloway, 'Life and observations of Flamsteed - Newton, Halley, and Flamsteed', Edinburgh Review (1836); W Whewell, Newton and Flamsteed. Remarks on an Article in No. CIX of the Quarterly Review (1836); S P Rigaud, MS of draft essay, 'Mrs Catharine Barton' (1836); D Brewster, 'Newton, Sir Isaac', Encyclopaedia Britannica (1842); A De Morgan, MS of draft letter to Brewster regarding Newton and the fluxions controversy (1842); A De Morgan, 'Isaac Newton', The Cabinet Portrait Gallery of British Worthies (1846); A De Morgan, 'Sir David Brewster's "Life of Newton",' North British Review (1855); Anon., 'Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton', Times (1855); B Powell, 'Sir Isaac Newton', Edinburgh Review (1856); Excerpts from A De Morgan, Newton: His Friend and his Niece (1885)
Review :
'The level of scholarship, textual editing, and detailed analysis is very high ... [and] the introductions ... are useful - even essential.' Notes and Records 'a mine of information' The British Journal of the History of Science 'The main advantage of Rob Iliffe and Rebekah Higgitt's Early Biographies of Isaac Newton 1660-1885, is that this two-volume set collects and reprints many of the rarer sources that have formed the ultimate basis of almost all subsequent biographical treatments of Newton, both good and bad.' Ambix
