Ann Hibner Koblitz

Kovalevskaia was the first woman in modern history to be awarded a doctorate in mathematics, the first woman to hold a permanent university position in the sciences, and the first woman to to hold a position on the editorial board of a major scientific journal. Her biography is at once a window into the particular world of late-1800s Russian intelligentsia, a universal story of how science is produced (mentoring, correspondence and hard work), and a curiously relevant set of questions about gender and society (e.g. who does the dishes when you've been working all day at abstract mathematics?)

I like Koblitz's style — she knows how to place Kovalevskaia in context without giving any of her many interests short shrift, or lauding her unnecessarily. My only complaint is the pervading sense of doom — we know she dies at an early age, but Koblitz's many references to upcoming financial disasters and untimely demises give the whole book a tragic tone which it doesn't need.… (meer)