Despite the renown of the Fields Medals, J. C. Fields has been until now a rather obscure figure, and recovering details about his professional activities and personal life was not at all a simple task. This work is a triumph of persistence with far-flung archival and documentary sources, and provides a rich non-mathematical portrait of the man in all aspects of his life and career. Highly readable and replete with period detail, the book sheds useful light on the mathematical and scientific world of Fields' time, and is sure to remain the definitive biographical study. --Tom Archibald, Simon...