Helen De Witt

author of Last Samurai and Your Name Here

http://helendewitt.com/ https://twitter.com/helendewitt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_DeWitt

her blog - wow awesome use of labels, an auto-categorizer after my own heart.

Letter to an Undergraduate (College Education). Isaac Newton laid the foundations for his work in mathematics, optics, and physics during an enforced absence from Cambridge (closed down because of the plague). Some of his university work was useful, some not; it was the block of time without interruptions that allowed him to follow his obsessions, taking what was useful as a basis for work of startling originality. The present system guarantees the conditions of Newton's study of Gassendi while leaving the discovery of gravity in the lap of the gods.

review of the books: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n17/turn03_.html