Newton and the Counterfeiter : The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist

Preface: "Let Newton be" -- Learning to think -- A rogue's progress -- Passions -- The new warden -- Skirmishes -- Newton and the counterfeiter -- Epilogue: "He could not calculate the madness of the people.";In 1695, Isaac Newton, already renowned as the greatest mind of his age, made a surprising career move.

In 1695, Isaac Newton—already renowned as the greatest mind of his age—made a surprising career change. He left quiet Cambridge, where he had lived for thirty years and made his earth-shattering discoveries, and moved to London to take up the post of Warden of His Majesty’s Mint.

 

Newton was preceded to the city by a genius of another kind, the budding criminal William Chaloner. Thanks to his preternatural skills as a counterfeiter, Chaloner was rapidly rising in London’s highly competitive underworld, at a time when organized law enforcement was all but unknown and money in the modern sense was just coming into being. Then he crossed paths with the formidable new warden. In the courts and streets of London—and amid the tremors of a world being transformed by the ideas Newton himself had set in motion—the chase was on. This revelatory tale of Isaac Newton’s journey through London’s underworld will appeal to fans of The Professor and the Madman.

The Barnes & Noble Review

Until the ghost of Arthur Conan Doyle provides us with a new adventure concerning Sherlock Holmes and his insidious archnemesis, Professor Moriarty, we shall have to be well content with a work of nonfiction that exhibits all the same Anglophile-satisfying exoticism, narrative brio, intellectual daring, and personality-rich cast: Thomas Levenson s excellent Newton and the Counterfeiter. Scrupulously researched, elegantly presented, illuminatingly insightful, and slyly topical, this narrative centers around the lesser-known period in the life of the genius Sir Isaac Newton. In his late 50s, with his major research and discoveries behind him, having suffered a mind-shattering crisis of faith and friendship, Newton secured the job of warden of the Royal Mint. There, he was rapidly forced to deploy all his wits against a horde of counterfeiters, chief of which was one William Chaloner, as wily a rogue as ever clipped shillings. Deftly supplying historical and sociological details as needed, Levenson begins his tale at Newton s birth, succinctly elaborating the man s character and accomplishments. A parallel track explores the necessarily less well documented life of Chaloner, a charming, hubristic rogue for whom no small amount of pity and understanding is evoked. On an ineluctable collision course, the two titans of probity and rascality go head-to-head in the latter half of the book, cat-and-mousing it to produce all the suspense of any mystery novel. Levenson has chosen an era and set of incidents that carry much relevance to contemporary headlines. Fiscal scams, political intrigues, scientific advances and their cultural impact, wars and shortages, the role of the new media (cheap printing), the torture of dissidents -- all these issues and more, so central to Restoration citizens, still carry immense and significant freight for modern readers. But such admittedly serious issues take a backseat to the thrill of watching Isaac Newton in Sherlockian disguise, meeting informers in a sleazy tavern! --Paul DiFilippo

A “thoroughly surprising” chapter in the life of Isaac Newton, with a “vivid re-creation of 17th-century London and its fascinating criminal haunts” (Providence Journal). When renowned scientist Isaac Newton takes up the post of Warden of His Majesty's Mint in London, another kind of genius—a preternaturally gifted counterfeiter named William Chaloner—has already taken up residence in the city, rising quickly in an unruly, competitive underworld. In the courts and streets of London, and amid the tremors of a world being transformed by ideas Newton himself set in motion, Chaloner crosses paths with the formidable new warden. An epic game of cat and mouse ensues in Newton and the Counterfeiter, revealing for the first time the “remarkable and true tale of the only criminal investigator who was far, far brainier than even Sherlock Holmes: Sir Isaac Newton during his tenure as Warden of the Royal Mint... A fascinating saga” (Walter Isaacson). “I absolutely loved Newton and the Counterfeiter. Deft, witty and exhaustively researched.” —Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao “A delicious read, featuring brilliant detective work and a captivating story... A virtuoso performance.” —Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind “Through a page-turning narrative, we witness Isaac Newton's genius grappling with the darker sides of human nature, an all too human journey reflecting his deepest beliefs about the cosmic order.” —Brian Greene, author of The Fabric of the Cosmos “Levenson transforms inflation and metallurgy into a suspenseful detective story bolstered by an eloquent summary of Newtonian physics and stomach-turning descriptions of prison life in the Tower of London.... [The book] humanizes a legend, transforming him into a Sherlock Holmes in pursuit of his own private Moriarty.” —The Washington Post In 1695, Isaac Newton, Already Renowned As The Greatest Mind Of His Age, Made A Surprising Career Move. Learning To Think -- A Rogue's Progress -- Passions -- The New Warden -- Skirmishes -- Newton And The Counterfeiter. Thomas Levenson. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [292]-301) And Index. Already famous throughout Europe for his theories of planetary motion and gravity, Isaac Newton decided to take on the job of running the Royal Mint. This is a compelling book about crime, science and money, and transforms our image of Britain's greatest scientist.