诺曼·麦克雷（Norman Maerae），1923年生，1942～1945年为英国皇家空军导航员，1945年进入剑桥大学学习，1947年获经济学一等荣誉学位，1947-1949年在剑桥大学从事经济学研究及教学工作，1949年加盟《经济学家》（The Economist）杂志社。他利用业余时间出版了8本著作并担任一些顾问工作．在五大洲均开设过讲座，曾为许多杂志撰稿，1989年退休。在美国出版的书籍有《神经质的万亿富翁》（TheNeurotic Trillion-aire）、《美国的第三个世纪》（America’SThird Century）、《2025年度报告：1975～2025之未来史》（The2025Report：AFutureHistoryof1975-2025）。与哈克特（John Hackett）将军合著的有关第三次世界大战的两本著作全球销量超过300万册。1989年他被英国女王授予英国CBE荣誉勋章。

This volume is the reprinted edition of the first full-scale biography of the man widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the century after Einstein.

Born in Budapest in 1903, John von Neumann grew up in one of the most extraordinary of scientific communities. From his arrival in America in the mid-1930s--with bases in Boston, Princeton, Washington, and Los Alamos--von Neumann pioneered and participated in the major scientific and political dramas of the next three decades, leaving his mark on more fields of scientific endeavor than any other scientist. Von Neumann's work in areas such as game theory, mathematics, physics, and meteorology formed the building blocks for the most important discoveries of the century: the modern computer, game theory, the atom bomb, radar, and artificial intelligence, to name just a few.

From the laboratory to the highest levels of government, this definitive biography gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the politics and personalities involved in these world-changing discoveries. Written more than 30 years after von Neumann's untimely death at age 54, it was prepared with the cooperation of his family and includes information gained from interviewing countless sources across Europe and America. Norman Macrae paints a highly readable, humanizing portrait of a man whose legacy still influences and shapes modern science and knowledge.