When New York Times reporter Sylvia Nasar heard a rumor that mathematician and theorist John Nash was on the short list to receive a Nobel Prize in economics in 1994, she was shocked.
"I had simply assumed that he was dead," said Nasar.
Despite the monumental impact he had on his field, Nash had fallen into obscurity only a few years after publishing his thesis in economic equilibrium. At age 21, this would be the work that Nash would eventual win the Nobel Prize for decades later.
"I knew he had an extraordinary story and an exotic life that was meaningful to so many people... but I didn't know what to make of it," Nasar said of the rumor.
A year and a half later, Nasar was scanning wire stories and discovered that Nash had won the award. This led to a project that took Nasar over two years to complete; a biography of John Nash. Thus was born what is now a household name: "A Beautiful Mind."
"A Beautiful Mind," which inspired an academy award winning movie of the same name earned Nasar a National Book Critic's Circle Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. On Sept. 18, Nasar spoke to the Adelphi community about some of her discoveries in the process of writing this work.
"What is so extraordinary about John Nash's life was that it was a prime example of a three-act play," said Nasar. "There was the rise, then the fall, and then the return. Many few people ever get to experience anything after the fall."
Nasar said that the first act in Nash's life was a typical "coming of age story." Similar to how Ron Howard's film portrayed him, Nash was an eccentric human being who was often immersed in his own world. "People called him bug-brains because he always had buggy ideas," said Nasar. Nash went to Princeton University after the shortest letter of recommendation in the history of the school was sent on his behalf. The letter simply read, "This man is a genius."
Nasar spoke of his "movie-star looks" and the ornamental quality of his conversation.
"He avoided classes as a matter of principle," she said.
Nash was not very good at picking up girls said Nasar. "At his high school prom he left his date to dance with a stack of chairs," she said.
At 20 years old, Nash began to work on his idea that would change the course of modern economics. Traditionally, theorists saw economic relations as one person's loss equaling another's gain. Nash chose to focus on mutual gain. In only 27 pages, Nash explained his thesis, blowing the minds of faculty and students alike, although not gaining the respect initially from some of the more traditional economic theorists of the time.
But despite the contributions Nash made to his field on this one theorem, there are many experts that believe that his equilibrium theorem was only the surface of what Nash had to offer.
"After interviewing mathematicians many told me that the work that won Nash the Nobel Prize was the most trivial thing he had ever done," said Nasar.
What was perhaps even more significant for Nash was the woman he had at his side. His wife Alicia (performed by Jennifer Connelly in the film) was declared an "El Salvadorian Princess" by all who knew her, said Nasar. Nasar dedicated "A Beautiful Mind" to Alicia because, "She was the hero of the book. She saved Nash from ending up on the streets or probably committing suicide."
Shortly after his marriage to Alicia, Nash's life took a turn for the worse. The second act of his life story has officially started.
"The first signs of John's psychosis were met cryptically because people believed he was just indulging in some of his private jokes," said Nasar. At one party, Nash dressed up in a diaper and sat on Alicia's lap, sucking a pacifier and a bottle. He also told students at MIT that the New York Times had encrypted messages from another galaxy.
"It was impossible to deny that there was something wrong," said Nasar. Alicia was told to commit him because of his paranoid schizophrenia. "His beautiful mind had betrayed him," Nasar said.
When asked about his illness, John Nash told people "These ideas came to me the same way mathematics did - so I took it seriously."
According to Nasar, the saddest part about Nash's fall from grace was "he was no longer unique. He was suffering a fate that millions of others shared."
After being hospitalized involuntarily numerous times, Nash began to turn his life around, beginning the third act of his life.
"Slowly he just woke up," said Nasar of Nash. "He never took drugs. It was just a combination of the chemistry of his aging and his desire to reconnect. And the support of Alicia."
Nash's resurrection not only reconnected himself with his mind, but with the rest of his academic community as well. Nasar discovered in her reporting that Nash almost did not receive the award an hour before he was set to. Nash told Nasar of this rumor, "The Nobel Prize is like an Oscar. Both involve academies and politics."
In her research, Nasar found Nash's life difficult to report. "It was hard to get someone to put Nash's schizophrenia on the record," she said. It was an unauthorized work, but Nash never worked against it. "He used to tell he would take a Switzerland stance of neutrality about it," said Nasar.
Nash's sister went on the record and spoke about her brother's illness and Nasar's story ran in the Times three weeks after he won the Nobel Prize. Shortly after, Nasar started receiving letters from readers but there was one that struck a certain chord with her.
"It was in a dirty envelope on bright orange paper. It certainly wouldn't make it past the mailroom after the Anthrax scare this year," she said. The letter was signed "Berkley Baby," a former editor at the Times metro desk in the 1970s before he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He now lives on the streets outside of Berkley College. His letter to Nasar said, "John Nash's story gives me hope that the world will come back to me too."
This letter convinced Nasar to dive deeper into her work, even if it was to her subject's chagrin.
"Nash could never understand why anyone would write about him" said Nasar. "But after publication, he decided we should be friends."
The popularity of "A Beautiful Mind" the film is a phenomenon that Nash couldn't understand but Nasar believes the effects have been positive. "He had a transformation," she said. "He started talking to people more, making eye contact. He just spent three weeks in China and I went to see his first Broadway play with him."
A few months after the film's release, Nash and Alicia got remarried. They had been separated since Nash was 30, although Alicia moved back in with him to help him get better shortly after he was committed the first time. Nasar was at the ceremony and had asked Nash and Alicia to kiss again so that a photographer could take a picture. She was amazed by Nash's response:
"A second take - just like in the movies," he said.
