William rowan hamilton biography book

Hamilton was one of the greatest mathematicians and physicists of all time; he was also a medium-quality Romantic poet and a personal friend of William Wordsworth.

Hamilton's poems are scattered through the three volumes of the 1882 biography by Rev. Robert Perceval Graves: Volume 1 --- Volume 2 --- Volume 3. [Dublin: Hodges and Figgis].

Reading Hamilton's poetry gives one a somewhat skewed impression: he tended to write most prolifically when he was miserable.

Despite his unhappy love life, his struggle with alcoholism, and his constitutional inclination toward depression, he was by no means so continually wretched as his gloomier verses suggest, and indeed his prose writings and letters paint a quite different picture.

Graves's book remains the indispensible resource for Hamilton's life; much further biographical detail may be found in the more modern Sir William Rowan Hamilton