Norbert Wiener was one of the most original mathematicians of his time. The field concerning the study of automatic control systems, called cybernetics, owes a great deal not only to his researches, but to his continuing efforts at publicity. He wrote for a variety of popular journals as well as for technical publications and was not reluctant to express political views even when they might be unpopular. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Wiener's life as a student and a mathematician is how well documented it is, thanks to two volumes of autobiography published during his lifetime. They reveal some of the complexity of a man whose aspirations went well beyond the domain of mathematics.

Wiener was born in Columbia, Missouri, on November 26, 1894. His father, Leo Wiener, had been born in Bialystok, Poland (then Russia), and was an accomplished linguist. He arrived in New Orleans in 1880 with very...