John Derbyshire's Home Page

PLEASE NOTE:  This is my old website.  I am building a new one at http://www.johnderbyshire.com

Beginning with September 2007 items, I shall no longer make additions to this site.  I shall archive my reviews and opinion pieces, and add new materials, only to the new site.

As time permits, I shall transfer all my current archives from this site to the new one.  That, however, will take a long time.  The rule for the foreseeable future will be:  Anything published from September 2007 onwards is on the new site.  Anything earlier may be on either the new or the old site.

I am a writer--critic, commentator, novelist, and pop-math author--living on Long Island, New York.

This is my home page.  Using its links you can look at my work and get an idea of its scope and quality. 

Some parts of the site may be shut off from general browsing and need special passwords, supplied by me.  To get in touch with me for this or any other purpose, please use (which you can do only if your browser has Javascript turned on).

My latest book, Unknown Quantity, was published in the U.S.A. by Joseph Henry Press in May 2006.  It can be ordered from online booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or via Booksense, a website that helps you locate independent bookstores.

A paperback edition of the book was published in May 2007 by Plume Books, a division of the Penguin Group.  It can likewise be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and also from Powell's Books, or again via Booksense.

A British edition (paperback) appeared in Spring 2007, published by Atlantic Books, and can be purchased from Amazon (UK) and Waterstone's (and possibly other U.K. online bookstores I don't know about).

My previous book, Prime Obsession, was published in April 2003, also by Joseph Henry Press.  It too can be ordered from online booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.   A paperback edition of the book was published in May 2004 by Plume.  There has been a British edition, and numerous foreign translations--Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, to my certain knowledge.

Note:  The Mathematical Association of America awarded the Euler Book Prize for mathematical exposition to Prime Obsession at their New Orleans meeting on January 6, 2007.  I am immensely flattered and profoundly grateful to the MAA.  It is particularly satisfying to win an award named after Euler.  I made it plain in Prime Obsession (Chapter 4) that he is one of my favorite characters among the great mathematicians; and 2007 is his tercentenary year.

My 2000 novel Fire from the Sun can be read or purchased online.  

My spoken-language CD, 36 Great American Poems, is currently available:  the CD's main page tells you how to get it.  

My 1996 novel Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream can still be bought on-line or through bookstores.  

All of my web journalism, and as much of my print journalism as I have kept track of, is gathered here, with links to the full text of all pieces.

Occasional random notes, most of them arising from my web journalism, are included under a single heading.

If the mugshots on this page leave you unsatisfied, more photographs are available at "Photographs".

The section called Readings was intended to feature sound clips of me reading some favorite pieces of prose and verse, but in fact has become a repository for various other kinds of sound clips as well.

Here is a lengthy interview I did with Bernard Chapin of the webzine Enter Stage Right in May 2003.  Here is another one with Kevin Holtsberry at Collected Miscellanies, November 2003.  Here is a somewhat more light-hearted one with Frank Fleming of the conservative-humorist webzine IMAO in March 2004.  Here is one with Razib of the Gene Expression website.  Here I am with Bernard Chapin again in May 2007.  And here I attempt to talk politics with the guys at Race42008.com.