Agnes Mary Clerke and the Rise of Astrophysics

This book is an account of the extraordinary career of the mid-nineteenth-century astronomer Agnes Mary Clerke.

M. T. Brück (Author)

9780521808446, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 May 2002

286 pages, 23 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.1 cm, 0.51 kg

'… a detailed, scholarly, and thorough account of both the life and the work of relatively unknown Irish woman of science.' Choice

Born in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century, Agnes Mary Clerke achieved fame as the author of A History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century. Through her quarter-century career, she became the leading commentator on astronomy and astrophysics in the English-speaking world. The biography of Agnes Clerke describes the life and work of this extraordinary woman. It also chronicles the development of astronomy in the last decades of pre-Einstein science, and introduces many of the great figures in astronomy of that age including Huggins, Lockyer, Holden and Pickering; their achievements and their rivalries. The story follows her friendship with William and Margaret Huggins, and her prolific correspondence with eminent astronomers of the time. This biography will fascinate scientists, and anyone who admires intellectual achievement brought about through love of learning and sheer hard work.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Family background in County Cork
2. Ireland and Italy
3. London, the literary scene
4. The History of Astronomy
5. A circle of astronomers
6. A visit to South Africa
7. The System of the Stars
8. Social life in scientific circles
9. Homer, the Herschels and a revised History
10. The opinion moulder
11. Popularisation, cryogenics and evolution
12. Problems in Astrophysics
13. Women in astronomy in Britain in Agnes Clerke's time
14. Revised System of the Stars
15. Cosmogonies, cosmology and Nature's spiritual clues
16. Last days and retrospect
17. Epilogue
Notes
Appendix
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Astronomy, space & time [PG], History of science [PDX]