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THOMAS LEVENSON tells of
Newton and the Counterfeiter:
The Unknown Detective Career
of the World's Greatest Scientist
Harvard Book Store is very happy to welcome MIT's THOMAS LEVENSON, author and Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary filmmaker, for a discussion of his fascinating new account of a little-known chapter of Isaac Newton's life, Newton and the Counterfeiter. In 1695, Isaac Newton—already renowned as the greatest mind of his age—made a surprising career change. He left quiet Cambridge, where he had lived for thirty years and made his earth-shattering discoveries, and moved to London to take up the post of Warden of His Majesty’s Mint. Newton was preceded to the city by the budding criminal William Chaloner. Thanks to his preternatural skills as a counterfeiter, Chaloner was rapidly rising in London’s highly competitive underworld, at a time when organized law enforcement was all but unknown and money in the modern sense was just coming into being. Then he crossed paths with the formidable new warden. "Levenson reveals the remarkable and true tale of the only criminal investigator who was far, far brainier than even Sherlock Holmes: Sir Isaac Newton during his tenure as Warden of the Royal Mint. What a fascinating saga! It allows us to see the human side of Newton and how his amazing mind worked when dealing with practical rather than theoretical questions.” —Walter Isaacson (Einstein, His Life and Universe) “Newton and the Counterfeiter is a wonderful read that reveals a whole new side to a giant of science. Through a page-turning narrative, we witness Isaac Newton's genius grappling with the darker sides of human nature, an all too human journey reflecting his deepest beliefs about the cosmic order. This is a gripping story that enriches our sense of the man who forever changed our view of the universe.” —Brian Greene (The Fabric of the Cosmos) "As the great Newton recedes from us in time, he comes increasingly into focus as a man rather than a myth—thanks in no small measure to this learned and lively new study from the estimable Thomas Levenson.” —Timothy Ferris (Seeing in the Dark) “Newton and the Counterfeiter is both a fascinating read and a meticulously researched historical document: a combination difficult to achieve and rarely seen.... Recommended for anyone who wants to know the real story behind this astonishing but largely overlooked chapter of scientific history.” —Neal Stephenson (Anathem) "Deft, witty and exhaustively researched, Levenson's tale illuminates a near-forgotten chapter of Newton's extraordinary life—the cat-and-mouse game that pitted him against a criminal mastermind—and manages not only to add to our knowledge of the great mathematician but to make a page turner out of it. This book rocks." —Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) “Newton and the Counterfeiter is a delicious read, featuring brilliant detective work and a captivating story...a virtuoso performance.” —Sylvia Nasar (A Beautiful Mind) "It's a rollicking account of the fascinating underbelly of seventeenth-century London—and reveals an aspect of Newton I'd scarcely known of before, yet which shaped the world we know." —David Bodanis (E=MC2)
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