Orbiting in Eccentric Circles: A Family History - Softcover

Nichols, Alice Rainich

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1482506963 ISBN 13: 9781482506969

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013

Synopsis

In this memoir, Alice Rainich Nichols relates a lifetime of family lore and experience, sharing tales of her father, world-renowned mathematician Yuri Germanovich Rabinovich/G Y Rainich; her mother Sophie, born into luxury and destined to become a long-suffering university wife; and Babushka, the Russian-born grandmother who brought a box of mysterious pictures for seven-year-old Alice from an far away uncle, revealing a world of new horizons to the little girl from Michigan. Along the way, we meet a ple- thora of brilliant and absent-minded professors, wandering mathematical geniuses, oddball neighbors and colleagues, and the flamboyantly self-important Count Korzybski.

About this title

About the Author:

Alice Rainich Nichols’ parents, Sophie Krakovsky and Yuri Germanovich Rabinovich (later George Yuri Rainich) fled Russia to come to the United States during the persecution of intellectuals under Lenin. Her father, Yuri, a brilliant mathematician, was at one time considered one of only a handful with the ability to understand Einstein’s theory of relativity. He accepted a position at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland. Shortly after Alice’s birth in 1925, the family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Yuri joined the faculty at the University of Michigan. Alice grew up in Ann Arbor, and recalls spending almost a year in Europe, during Yuri’s sabbatical. Yuri saw to it that his seven-year-old daughter kept up with her education, and taught her to count to ten, and speak a few phrases in the language of each country they visited. In 1930, Alice’s grandmother, Gabrielle Epshtein Rabinovich (Babushka), left Russia to live with her son’s family in the United States. She taught Alice to speak Russian, encouraging a lifelong interest in languages. Alice attended the University of Michigan, earning her undergraduate degree in Philosophy, while also studying many languages including Spanish, French, German, and Russian. She earned her Master’s Degree in Linguistics. Alice searched for, and eventually found, members of her mother's and father’s families, and has traveled to Russia twice to meet with long lost cousins. Now retired in Manhattan, Kansas, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, Kathryn, and granddaughter, Alice, who recently completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Kansas, and is now embarking on her own adventures in the big wide world.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1482506963
• ISBN 13: 9781482506969
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 244