Willard Gibbs

Marginalian Editions presents a groundbreaking poets biography of the forgotten scientist who founded physical chemistry, shaping much of the 20th centuryand an ingenious, expansive treatise on American creativity, character, and remembrance. Josiah Willard Gibbs (18391903) was an American visionary whose work shaped a century of science by bridging classical mechanics and quantum physics. A kindly and shy bachelor who lectured at Yale in relative obscurity for more than thirty years, he single-handedly created the field of physical chemistry without ever completing a single experiment. Gibbss visionary work enabled future scientists to predict what states a substance can assume and under what conditionsthe implications for industry, agriculture, and warfare were vast. Hailed by Einstein as the greatest mind in American history, Gibbs remained essentially unknown. To acclaimed poet Muriel Rukeyser, Gibbs lived closer than any inventor, any poet, any scientific worker in pure imagination to the life of the inventive and organizing spirit in America. Rukeysers thoroughly researched and lyrical tribute to Gibbs is much more than a biography: it is an alchemical compound of philosophy, history, ethics, and literature writ large. It is the story of a country, a century, a global epoch of scientific creativity that would color every realm of human imagination and aspiration, from poetry to politics.