Isaac Newton.

JAMES GLEICK

Gleick is known for simply titled books with fascinating content and clear exposition, including Chaos, Faster, and Genius--a biography of Richard Feynman. Now, the author turns his attention to another of science's famous characters. Gleick's reverence for Newton and his vision is clear. He states early on that Newton "was the chief architect of the modern world," a man who "made knowledge a thing of substance: quantitative and exact." The author notes that Newton answered the ancient riddles of light and motion, effectively explained gravity, and showed how to predict the courses of heavenly bodies. On a personal level, Newton was a profoundly solitary man who trod the brink of madness much of his life. He also dabbled in alchemy and theological esoterica, says Gleick, who charts all these avenues of Newton's existence. In the process, Gleick reveals a great deal about how one man made such an extensive contribution to our understanding of the world around us. Pantheon, 2003, 272 p., b&w photos/illus., hardcover, $22.95.