A Calendar of the Correspondence of Sir John Herschel

This volume provides for the first time summaries, descriptions, and documentation for 14,815 letters written by or sent to Sir John Herschel (1792-1871). Herschel's numerous contributions to astronomy as well as to mathematics, physics, chemistry (especially photochemistry and photography), meteorology, philosophy of science, and scientific organization, led his British contemporaries to regard him as the most prominent scientist of his era. Because Herschel corresponded on a remarkable array of topics and with leading figures both in Britain and beyond, this volume gives scholars access to a wealth of revealing new information. The many new uses of the volume are enhanced by its Biographical Register, which indentifies about 1500 of Herschel's correspondents, and its Index, which supplies 30,000 references. This volume is far and away the most extensive source of information on John Herschel ever published. Also included are bibliographies of Herschel's publications and of publications on him.