Math professor's book wins national laurels

Professor of Mathematics William Goldbloom Bloch has won an honorable mention from the 2008 PROSE Awards for his book, The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel.

Published by Oxford University Press, Bloch's book examines Jorge Luis Borges' short story, "The Library of Babel," drawing connections between the literature and the mathematics embedded within the story. The 193-page book, which was honored in the mathematics category of the PROSE Awards, was inspired in part by Wheaton's "Connections" curriculum, which requires students to study subjects across disciplines.

Awarded annually since 1976, the PROSE awards recognize extraordinary professional, reference, and scholarly works in the arts and sciences. The Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division (PSP) of the Association of American Publishers received 439 entries in 2008, the most in the contest's 33-year history. Winners and honorable-mention finalists were chosen in more than 35 scholarly disciplines.

An influential poet, essayist, librarian, and master of the short story, Borges was "an autodidact who read and reread works by (among others) Bertrand Russell on the foundations and philosophy of mathematics," says Bloch.

 "These kinds of considerations explicitly directed the arcs of many of his short stories," he continues. "'The Library of Babel' is perhaps his most famous story, and in its scant seven pages, he deploys simple combinatorial ideas to help create a miasmic atmosphere in the service of raising issues about the meaningfulness of our existence."

"The story also evokes ideas from three-dimensional manifold theory, real analysis, and graph theory." Bloch's book touches upon a number of these themes.

Bloch says his book was years in the making. His research included a trip to Buenos Aires to examine some of Borges' personal library and learn more about where the author lived and worked at the time he wrote "The Library of Babel."

"The process of writing the book was long and arduous, and along the way I lost all perspective about it," says Bloch. "I am thrilled to receive this recognition."

The PROSE award winners were selected by a panel of 15 judges, including publishing professionals from The Johns Hopkins University Press, Wiley-Blankwell, and McGraw-Hill. For more information on the awards, visit www.proseawards.com.