The book is part biography and part collection of mathematical essays that gives the reader a perspective on the evolution of an interesting mathematical life. It is all about Lipman Bers, a giant in the mathematical world who lived in turbulent and exciting times. It captures the essence of his mathematics, a development and transition from applied mathematics to complex analysis--quasiconformal mappings and moduli of Riemann surfaces--and the essence of his personality, a progression from a young revolutionary refugee to an elder statesman in the world of mathematics and a fighter for global human rights and the end of political torture. The book contains autobiographical material and short reprints of his work. The main content is in the exposition of his research contributions, sometimes with novel points of view, by students, grand-students, and colleagues. The research described was fundamental to the growth of a central part of 20th century mathematics that, now in the 21st century, is in a healthy state with much current interest and activity. The addition of personal recollections, professional tributes, and photographs yields a picture of a man, his personal and professional family, and his time.

The description for this book, Contributions to the Theory of Partial Differential Equations. (AM-33), Volume 33, will be forthcoming.

The Ahlfors-Bers Colloquia commemorate the mathematical legacy of Lars Ahlfors and Lipman Bers. The core of this legacy lies in the fields of geometric function theory, Teichmuller theory, hyperbolic geometry, and partial differential equations. However,

One of art's purest challenges is to translate a human being into words. The New Yorker has met this challenge more successfully and more originally than any other modern American journal. It has indelibly shaped the genre known as the Profile. Starting with light-fantastic evocations of glamorous and idiosyncratic figures of the twenties and thirties, such as Henry Luce and Isadora Duncan, and continuing to the present, with complex pictures of such contemporaries as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Richard Pryor, this collection of New Yorker Profiles presents readers with a portrait gallery of some of the most prominent figures of the twentieth century. These Profiles are literary-journalistic investigations into character and accomplishment, motive and madness, beauty and ugliness, and are unrivalled in their range, their variety of style, and their embrace of humanity. Including these twenty-eight profiles: “Mr. Hunter’s Grave” by Joseph Mitchell “Secrets of the Magus” by Mark Singer “Isadora” by Janet Flanner “The Soloist” by Joan Acocella “Time . . . Fortune . . . Life . . . Luce” by Walcott Gibbs “Nobody Better, Better Than Nobody” by Ian Frazier “The Mountains of Pi” by Richard Preston “Covering the Cops” by Calvin Trillin “Travels in Georgia” by John McPhee “The Man Who Walks on Air” by Calvin Tomkins “A House on Gramercy Park” by Geoffrey Hellman “How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen?” by Lillian Ross “The Education of a Prince” by Alva Johnston “White Like Me” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. “Wunderkind” by A. J. Liebling “Fifteen Years of The Salto Mortale” by Kenneth Tynan “The Duke in His Domain” by Truman Capote “A Pryor Love” by Hilton Als “Gone for Good” by Roger Angell “Lady with a Pencil” by Nancy Franklin “Dealing with Roseanne” by John Lahr “The Coolhunt” by Malcolm Gladwell “Man Goes to See a Doctor” by Adam Gopnik “Show Dog” by Susan Orlean “Forty-One False Starts” by Janet Malcolm “The Redemption” by Nicholas Lemann “Gore Without a Script” by Nicholas Lemann “Delta Nights” by Bill Buford

"One of the themes of the book is how to have a fulfilling professional life. In order to achieve this goal, Krantz discusses keeping a vigorous scholarly program going and finding new challenges, as well as dealing with the everyday tasks of research, teaching, and administration." "In short, this is a survival manual for the professional mathematician - both in academics and in industry and government agencies. It is a sequel to the author's A Mathematician's Survival Guide."--BOOK JACKET.