Library hosts author of A Beautiful Mind

he story of John Forbes Nash Jr. was one Sylvia Nasar said she had to tell. "There are so many stories throughout history on the spectacular rise and tragic fall. But few have such a stunning third act as the story of John Nash," Nasar told an audience of nearly 300 on February 26 as she read excerpts from her successful biography, A Beautiful Mind, recently portrayed in the award-winning movie by the same name directed by Ron Howard.

"The fact that he could come back from the depths of this awful disease speaks directly to the strength of the human spirit," said Nasar.

Nash, a brilliant mathematician, burst onto the Princeton scene in 1948, in the company of Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer. Within 14 months Nash made his Nobel Prize-winning mathematic formulation that contributed significantly to the Game Theory, the cornerstone of modern economics.

But, as Nasar explained, Nash was not a conventional student and resisted conformity. "Nash avoided classes as a matter of principle," said Nasar. "Obsessed with originality, disdainful of authority, he rushed into areas of thought where others feared to tread. Nash was looking for a short cut to glory."

But by the late '50s, Nash was showing signs of the debilitating illness that would leave him hospitalized and isolated for decades. According to Nasar, Nash's battle with schizophrenia lasted for over 30 years--a time he calls his "lost years"--and denied him the opportunity to live up to his amazing potential. Nash eventually returned to the Princeton campus, a ghost of his former self, and found refuge in libraries and lecture halls, still tormented by psychotic delusions.

"Then slowly, around 1990, he simply woke from the disease," said Nasar, describing Nash's gradual recovery. In 1994, Nash received the Nobel Prize for the theory he discovered early in his career. According to Nasar, the recognition is evidence of the fierce loyalty and respect he garnered from his peers and that still continues today despite his tragic illness.

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