MathFiction: Letters to a Young Mathematician (Ian Stewart)

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Letters to a Young Mathematician (2006)

Ian Stewart
(click on names to see more mathematical fiction by the same author)
Highly Rated!
Note: This work of mathematical fiction is recommended by Alex for math majors, math grad students (and maybe even math professors).

I listed this one here before I had a chance to read it and am now wondering whether it should be counted as fiction at all. This is an excellent book which provides a lot of useful information about mathematics as a science and as a career. It takes the form of letters from a mathematician to his niece as she moves from high school through college and finally on to a position as a math professor, providing her with advice and mentoring all along the way. Although the niece is fictional, the mathematician seems to be Stewart himself, and so the "letters" are more like non-fictional essays on mathematics with the imaginary character of the niece merely providing the motivation and continuity.

At least for the moment I will keep this here and give it a low score for "literary quality" not because it is written poorly but because it isn't really fiction at all.

Contributed by Yolande

It's true that this book isn't actually fiction, but I don't think the genre affects the Literary Quality. It was well written, and it would attract the attention of both adults, and younger adults. Maybe even teens. I'm fifteen, and personally, I found it to be a very fascinating and interesting read.

In a whole, the book was excellent, and provided a brief little peek at the history of Mathematics. I recommend it for anybody that's interested in becoming a Mathematician, or just likes math. =)

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to Letters to a Young Mathematician

According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:

Dialógusok a matematikáról [Dialogues on Mathematics] by Alfréd Rényi
Math Girls by Hiroshi Yuki
A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel by Gaurav Suri / Hartosh Singh Bal
The Kissing Number by Ian Stewart
Turing (A Novel About Computation) by Christos Papadimitriou
Lucy and David and the God Equation by Alan McKenzie
Sophie's Diary by Dora Musielak
Gauß, Eisenstein, and the ``third'' proof of the Quadratic Reciprocity Theorem: Ein kleines Schauspiel by Reinhard C. Laubenbacher / David J. Pengelley
Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy
Pythagorean Crimes by Tefcros Michaelides

Ratings for Letters to a Young Mathematician:

Ratings

Have you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.

Mathematical Content:
4.75/5 (4 votes)

Literary Quality:
3/5 (4 votes)

Categories:

Genre	Didactic,
Motif	Academia, Real Mathematicians, Female Mathematicians, Math as Beautiful/Exciting/Useful,
Topic	Algebra/Arithmetic/Number Theory, Analysis/Calculus/Differential, Real Mathematics,
Medium

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Where are the new works of mathematical fiction?: As you can see from this chronological listing, this database includes many works of mathematical fiction for each year from 1990 to 2025. Strangely, only two are listed for 2026, so far. Either less mathematical fiction is being published than in previous years or I'm just having more trouble finding it. If you know of any works of fiction that should be added to this list, especially recently published ones, please let me know. (Keep in mind that I do not include self-published works or children's fiction that just covers elementary mathematical concepts.) Thanks!

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)