Most of you probably know that I published a book (my fourth!) a couple of years ago: Newton and the Counterfeiter. (Kindle, Nook, Indiebound, Powell’s multiplatform ebook and Powell’s, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Amazon UK, audio version, Your Local Book Store)
As you all also know, two or three years is a lifetime in book years, so I’ve been doing almost no talking or promotion on that project for a while.
That changes in a few hours, when I’ll spend an hour on Skeptically Speaking with Marie-Claire Shanahan talking Newton, crime, the birth of the modern idea of money, and wherever else the conversation wanders. The show starts at 8 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. MDT, and will go up as a podcast next Friday. Listen here, and or subscribe via iTunes.
It probably isn’t too much of a spoiler to say that it wasn’t the brightest move of even a genuinely clever criminal to try to match wits with my man Izzy. Just sayin….
Image: William Blake,Isaac Newton, 1775.
WereBear
Bought, supported, not yet enjoyed. (Waiting for a stretch of free time in cognizance of the concept of intellect needing such; so sue me.)
Tom Levenson
@WereBear: No worries. Makes great beach reading, if I do say so as shouldn’t.
Foregone Conclusion
Rather esoteric question which you might not know the answer to: was your book serialised for BBC Radio 4 in Britain at some point? If it was, and if it wasn’t another book about Newton’s time as Warden of the Royal Mint, I’d like to say that I very much enjoyed it.
Jewish Steel
I just finished Newton And The Counterfeiter. I learned so much about Newton, our modern notions of currency and finance, Enlightenment England. Plus clippers, coiners, nips, and foins. What a superb book.
Tom Levenson
@Foregone Conclusion: Yes it was — Radio 4’s Book of the Week for sometime in August, 2009. Very chuffed about that, I was. Glad you liked it.
BGinCHI
I had no idea Newton Gingrich was a counterfeiter, but it doesn’t surprise me a bit.
ornery_curmudgeon
Awesome, Tom. Congratulations!
MikeJ
I think I read the book after hearing an interview on SciFri a few years ago, but I may pick it up for the nook. I like being able to carry a thousand books at a time around with me.
Cermet
Really a great book! So much fun and insightful considering we all know Newton just as a physicist … thank you for writing that part of his life!
Davis X. Machina
OT: Portland (ME) Press Herald:
Romney camp plans to sue, claiming irregularities in the process.
MikeJ
@Davis X. Machina: I think the Paulites took a large part of the Mass delegation too.
David Koch
Sarkozy loses — first french president in 30 years to lose reelection
Jewish Steel
@Davis X. Machina: @MikeJ:
I thought Mitt and Ron were pals? I remember MSM articles detailing the warm regard they had for one another.
Villago Delenda Est
@Davis X. Machina:
The “irregularity” is that the Rmoney scum got outfoxed by the Paulistas. All that money does not trump fanatical organization.
Which is but one reason why Rmoney is doomed in November.
MikeJ
@David Koch: Thank god the FN didn’t have enough votes to swing it.
andy
Interesting- a fictionalized account of Newton’s career was woven through Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle. I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to get more on Newton’s work beyond mathematics and now I have the chance.
Brachiator
@Tom Levenson: I think I first heard you discuss this book on one of the ALOUD podcasts of the Los Angeles Public Library. Skeptically Speaking is one of my essential listening podcasts. I look forward to hearing your interview. Thanks much for the reminder on this.
PeorgieTirebiter
My mother in law gave me your book as a xmas gift a few years back. She always pays retail (bless her heart) and I’m sure she had a clerk pick it out because it turned out to be my favorite gift that year. I never made the connection until you mentioned it some months ago.
Tom Levenson
@PeorgieTirebiter: Just to add to the synchronicity, Porgie Tirebiter was my teacher in my radio training course. (David Ossman he was/is, when in mufti.)
Also, of course, my thanks to your mum and you.
FlipYrWhig
I’m definitely going to check this out this summer. I read a few months back that Newton lost a ton of money in the South Sea Bubble, the financial crisis I’m trying to look into for a research project on literature from the era.
Tom Levenson
@FlipYrWhig: Check out Harvard Business School’s Baker Library online resources on the South Sea Bubble. Good times.
FlipYrWhig
@Tom Levenson: Thanks, marked for later!
Aaron Baker
I would never have guessed he looked so good naked.
PeorgieTirebiter
@Tom Levenson: That ‘s funny. You being a brainiac, I assume you studied with him at More Science High, I was a Commie Martyr boy myself. Many years ago I got a chance to chat with Procter and Bergman (r.I.p.) a few times while I was working for KHJ.
Tom levenson
@PeorgieTirebiter:
Shoes for industry!
Mac T
I read it, put it down for a day, then read it again. Then I pushed it on a co-worker. It’s safe to say I enjoyed it.
Quaker in a Basement
@Aaron Baker: Judging by that image, I’d guess Ike was on the juice. Maybe when he came up with his theory of gravitation, that apple didn’t just fall off the tree–Newton shook it down in a fit of roid rage!
Mark
Tom,
Super-random: I went to college with Marie-Claire (and her husband Mike.) I had no idea this is what she was up to now. I’ll definitely take a look at the rest of her work – thanks for linking!
John Redford
I too read and enjoyed finding out what a dangerous badass Newton could be when he put his mind to it. If we have a movie about Lincoln chasing fictional vampires, can’t we have one about Newton chasing actual supervillains? Mr Levenson, any nibbles from the Industry?
Tom Levenson
@John Redford: Nibbles. No bites. (Though a delicious moment when it seemed that Keanu Reeves might be interested in playing Newton…)
jayackroyd
Tom stopped by my place as well, a while ago, to talk about the book:
bit.ly/J4RFSZ
David in NY
Hey, I actually read Newton and the Counterfeiter. Can’t say I bought it — but my kid got it for me for Christmas.
On the idea of money — the invention of the idea of Quantum money is a good story. Still awaiting the reality, however …