Edwin Abbott Abbott (December 20, 1838 – 1926) wrote the mathematical satire Flatland: a romance of many dimensions in 1884. An English schoolmaster and theologian, Abbott was the eldest son of Edwin Abbott, headmaster of the Philological School, Marylebone, and his wife, Jane Abbott, who was also his first cousin.
Abbott was educated at the City of London School and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he took the highest honors in classics, mathematics and theology, and became fellow of his college. He became headmaster of the City of London School in 1865 at the early age of twenty-six.
Abbot’s most famous work, Flatland: a romance of many dimensions, was written under the pseudonym of A. Square. Flatland is an account of the adventures of A Square in Lineland and Spaceland. In it Abbott tries to popularize the notion of multidimensional geometry but the book is also a clever satire on the social, moral, and religious values of the period.
Retiring in 1889 to devote himself to literary and theological pursuits, Dr. Abbott's liberal inclinations in theology were prominent both in his educational views and in his books.
Other works by Edwin Abbott Abbott include:
Shakespearian Grammar (1870) a contribution to English philology.
3 anonymously published religious romances: Philochristus (1878), Onesimus (1882) and Sitanus (1906).
The Kernel and the Husk (1886)
Philomythus (1891)
The Anglican Career of Cardinal Newman (1892)
St. Thomas of Canterbury, his Death and Miracles (1898)
Johannine Vocabulary (1905)
Johannine Gramar (1906)
|
