The Indian Clerk (55 page)
Authors: David Leavitt
Thayer is entirely an invention, as is Richards.
I am solely responsible for any other lapses, ornamentations, or imaginative swoons that come to light. The muse of history
will probably not forgive them; I hope that the reader will.
For help and support of many kinds, I wish to thank Krishnaswami Alladi of the University of Florida Department of Mathematics;
Bruce Andrews; Amy Andrews Alznauer; Liz Calder; Dick Chapman; Vik-ram Doctor; Maggie Evans; Michael Fishwick; Sunil Mukhi;
K. Srinivasa Rao; John Van Hook of the University of Florida Libraries; Greg Villepique; and the generous faculty of Sastra
University, Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu.
For their careful editing of this novel, I am immensely grateful to Colin Dickerman and Beena Kamlani. I am likewise grateful
to Prabhakar Ragde for giving the novel such a careful and considerate reading and for correcting some of my more egregious
mathematical errors.
I owe a special debt of thanks to the indefatigable R. Balusubra-manian ("Balu") of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences,
Chennai, who took me for a ride on an electric rickshaw through Triplicane, let me hold Ramanujan's original notebooks in
my hands, and introduced me to Janaki's adopted son.
As always, I thank my agents, Jin Auh, Tracy Bohan, and Andrew Wylie, for their unceasing support and encouragement.
David Leavitt is the author of several novels, including
The Body of Jonah Boyd, While
England Sleeps,
and
Equal Affections.
A recipient of fellowships from both the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, he teaches
at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
The text of this book is set in Linotype Sabon, named after the type founder Jacques Sabon. It was designed by Jan Tschichold
and jointly developed by Linotype, Monotype, and Stempel, in response to a need for a typeface to be available in identical
form for mechanical hot metal composition and hand composition using foundry type.
Tschichold based his design for Sabon roman on a font engraved by Garamond, and Sabon italic on a font by Granjon. It was
first used in 1966 and has proved an enduring modern classic.