Photo © Jean Lightman
author spotlight
Alan Lightman was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and educated at Princeton and at the California Institute of Technology, where he received a Ph.D. in theoretical physics. An active research scientist in astronomy and physics for two decades, he has also taught both subjects on the faculties of Harvard and MIT. Lightman's novels include Einstein's Dreams, which was an international best seller; Good Benito; The Diagnosis, which was a finalist for the National Book Award; and Reunion. His essays have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Nature, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New Yorker, among other... Read More
author bookshelf
Ideas and Opinions
Written by Albert Einstein
Introduction by Alan Lightman
Format: Hardcover, 448 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: June 21, 1994
Price: $20.00
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Written by Albert Einstein
Introduction by Alan Lightman
Format: Hardcover, 448 pages
Publisher: Modern Library
On Sale: June 21, 1994
Price: $20.00
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Dance for Two
Essays
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: March 26, 1996
Price: $14.00
Dance for Two gathers the best of Lightman's work over the last twenty years. Here are pieces that touch on both the ethereal and the corporeal: the dependence of a ballerina on the laws of physics, the choice every scientist makes between tinkering and theorizing, the unscientific nature of discovery, the... Read more >
Essays
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: March 26, 1996
Price: $14.00
Dance for Two gathers the best of Lightman's work over the last twenty years. Here are pieces that touch on both the ethereal and the corporeal: the dependence of a ballerina on the laws of physics, the choice every scientist makes between tinkering and theorizing, the unscientific nature of discovery, the... Read more >
The Diagnosis
A Novel
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 19, 2002
Price: $14.95
The acclaimed, bestselling of author Einstein’s Dreams presents another startling meditation on science and life–the harrowing tale of one man's struggle to cope in a wired world as his own biological wiring short-circuits.
As Bill Chalmers shuttles to work, an extraordinary thing happens. Suddenly, he can't remember who he is or... Read more >
A Novel
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: February 19, 2002
Price: $14.95
The acclaimed, bestselling of author Einstein’s Dreams presents another startling meditation on science and life–the harrowing tale of one man's struggle to cope in a wired world as his own biological wiring short-circuits.
As Bill Chalmers shuttles to work, an extraordinary thing happens. Suddenly, he can't remember who he is or... Read more >
The Diagnosis
A Novel
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: eBook
Publisher: Knopf Group E-Books
On Sale: March 13, 2001
Price: $14.95
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A Novel
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: eBook
Publisher: Knopf Group E-Books
On Sale: March 13, 2001
Price: $14.95
Read more >
The Diagnosis
Written by Alan Lightman
Read by Scott Brick
Format: Unabridged Audiobook Download
Publisher: Random House Audio
On Sale: November 8, 2000
Price: $20.00
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Written by Alan Lightman
Read by Scott Brick
Format: Unabridged Audiobook Download
Publisher: Random House Audio
On Sale: November 8, 2000
Price: $20.00
Read more >
The Discoveries
Great Breakthroughs in 20th-Century Science, Including the Original Papers
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 592 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 14, 2006
Price: $18.00
In this captivating and lucid book, novelist and science writer Alan Lightman chronicles twenty-four great discoveries of twentieth-century science--everything from the theory of relativity to mapping the structure of DNA.
These discoveries radically changed our notions of the world and our place in it. Here are Einstein, Fleming, Bohr, McClintock, Paul ing... Read more >
Great Breakthroughs in 20th-Century Science, Including the Original Papers
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 592 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 14, 2006
Price: $18.00
In this captivating and lucid book, novelist and science writer Alan Lightman chronicles twenty-four great discoveries of twentieth-century science--everything from the theory of relativity to mapping the structure of DNA.
These discoveries radically changed our notions of the world and our place in it. Here are Einstein, Fleming, Bohr, McClintock, Paul ing... Read more >
The Discoveries
Great Breakthroughs in 20th-Century Science, Including the Original Papers
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: eBook, 592 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 14, 2009
Price: $18.00
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Great Breakthroughs in 20th-Century Science, Including the Original Papers
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: eBook, 592 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 14, 2009
Price: $18.00
Read more >
Einstein's Dreams
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 144 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 9, 2004
Price: $14.00
A modern classic, Einstein’s Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, when he worked in a patent office in Switzerland. As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one... Read more >
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 144 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 9, 2004
Price: $14.00
A modern classic, Einstein’s Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, when he worked in a patent office in Switzerland. As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one... Read more >
Einstein's Dreams
A Novel
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Hardcover, 192 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: January 4, 1993
Price: $23.95
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A Novel
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Hardcover, 192 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: January 4, 1993
Price: $23.95
Read more >
Ghost
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 14, 2008
Price: $14.95
A stunning new novel about an ordinary man's encounter with the extraordinary, from the author of Einstein's Dreams.
David Kurzweil, a quiet man with modest ambitions, was taking a break at his new job, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Something no science could explain. Suddenly David's... Read more >
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: October 14, 2008
Price: $14.95
A stunning new novel about an ordinary man's encounter with the extraordinary, from the author of Einstein's Dreams.
David Kurzweil, a quiet man with modest ambitions, was taking a break at his new job, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Something no science could explain. Suddenly David's... Read more >
Ghost
A Novel
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: October 23, 2007
Price: $23.00
Alan Lightman’s first novel, Einstein’s Dreams, became an international best seller and was hailed by Salman Rushdie as “at once intellectually provocative and touching and comic and so very beautifully written.” His novel The Diagnosis, called “highly original and imaginative” by the New York Times, was a finalist for the National... Read more >
A Novel
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: October 23, 2007
Price: $23.00
Alan Lightman’s first novel, Einstein’s Dreams, became an international best seller and was hailed by Salman Rushdie as “at once intellectually provocative and touching and comic and so very beautifully written.” His novel The Diagnosis, called “highly original and imaginative” by the New York Times, was a finalist for the National... Read more >
Ghost
A Novel
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: eBook
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: October 23, 2007
Price: $14.95
Read more >
A Novel
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: eBook
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: October 23, 2007
Price: $14.95
Read more >
Reunion
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 9, 2004
Price: $13.00
Charles, a once-promising poet, is a professor at a minor liberal arts college, admiring of passion but without passion himself. Now living a desperately comfortable existence, he decides to return to his thirtieth college reunion. While there, he relives an intense love affair he had with a beautiful ballerina that forever... Read more >
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 9, 2004
Price: $13.00
Charles, a once-promising poet, is a professor at a minor liberal arts college, admiring of passion but without passion himself. Now living a desperately comfortable existence, he decides to return to his thirtieth college reunion. While there, he relives an intense love affair he had with a beautiful ballerina that forever... Read more >
Reunion
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: eBook, 240 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: December 18, 2007
Price: $13.00
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Written by Alan Lightman
Format: eBook, 240 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: December 18, 2007
Price: $13.00
Read more >
Reunion
Written by Alan Lightman
Read by Scott Brick
Format: Unabridged Audiobook Download
Publisher: Random House Audio
On Sale: August 27, 2003
Price: $12.50
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Written by Alan Lightman
Read by Scott Brick
Format: Unabridged Audiobook Download
Publisher: Random House Audio
On Sale: August 27, 2003
Price: $12.50
Read more >
A Sense of the Mysterious
Science and the Human Spirit
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: eBook, 240 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: January 18, 2005
Price: $13.95
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Science and the Human Spirit
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: eBook, 240 pages
Publisher: Pantheon
On Sale: January 18, 2005
Price: $13.95
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A Sense of the Mysterious
Science and the Human Spirit
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 3, 2006
Price: $13.95
Unusually gifted as both a physicist and a novelist, Alan Lightman has lived in the dual worlds of science and art for much of his life. In these brilliant essays, the two worlds meet. In A Sense of the Mysterious, Lightman records his personal struggles to reconcile certainty with uncertainty, logic... Read more >
Science and the Human Spirit
Written by Alan Lightman
Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 3, 2006
Price: $13.95
Unusually gifted as both a physicist and a novelist, Alan Lightman has lived in the dual worlds of science and art for much of his life. In these brilliant essays, the two worlds meet. In A Sense of the Mysterious, Lightman records his personal struggles to reconcile certainty with uncertainty, logic... Read more >
