Gone Too Soon

 

Hôpital Cochin - Paris, France

Though I have posted at length about Évariste Galois in the past, I cannot let today go by without putting up a remembrance of him. Today is the anniversary of his death in 1832. Among his last words as he died in Hôpital Cochin of wounds from a duel the day before were to his brother Alfred: "Don’t cry, I need all my courage to die at twenty."

Rue de la Glacière - 13th Arrondissement, Paris

Galois was shot in the abdomen the previous day and was left in the field by his opponent and seconds. It was a later passerby who brought him to the hospital (Hôpital Cochin). The duel was in the field of Glacier Pond in Gentilly, now in the 13th Arrondissement in Paris. This field was near swamps that froze in the winter - a resource that was used for ice. But, of course, everything has changed since 1832; even the river that used to run near there is now underground. The closest I could get to where the duel may have been was the Rue de la Glacière.

Cimetière de Montparnasse - Paris, France

Certain he was going to die, Galois stayed up writing frantically, using his last hours to say what he needed to say. There is a myth that Galois spent the night writing out all the math that was in his head - math that we would not otherwise have. This is "romantic," but it is false. He had 4 published papers that I know of - one on continued fractions, two on the theory of equations, and one on number theory. He had also written and submitted to the French Academy of Sciences, a "memoir" titled The Conditions for the Resolvability of Equations by Radicals. The importance of his work (which is impossible to overstate) was not recognized until about a decade after his death - also the Academy was more than a little negligent about reviewing his work - but that does not mean we did not have his work. (Of course, we wish we had more!)

As Galois wrote on that last night of his life, he penned three things - a letter to "all republicans," wishing not to be reproached for dying otherwise than for his country" - a letter to two republican friends, apologizing for not telling them of the duel, and asking them to remember him "since fate did not give me a long enough life for my country to remember me" - and a letter to his best friend organizing and outlining his mathematical work. He also spent time organizing his mathematical papers; on one of these he wrote the poignant words, "Je n'ai pas le temps" - "I have no time."

Évariste Galois at age 15, drawn by a classmate (Public Domain, Wikipedia)

Despite having posted before, I am posting again for a few reasons. One is his statement in his letter to his friends - his concern about not having lived long enough to be remembered - I certainly want to make sure he is remembered. Another reason is to share a quote about him that I've come across since the time of my previous post - a quote by Felix Klein: "In France, about 1830, a new star of unimaginable brightness appeared in the heavens of pure mathematics." I think that quote reflects his impact well and is worth sharing. And finally, after all these years, a question has occurred to me that I hadn't considered before, and maybe one of my readers knows the answer.

MY QUESTION:

Galois was buried in a common grave in Montparnasse Cemetery, a grave whose exact location is no longer known. Yet his funeral had been attended by 2000 or more people. His brother still lived, as did his mother (I think). His father had been a mayor and is buried in Bourg-la-Reine Communal Cemetery, a suburb of Paris; would there not have been space next to him to bury his son? Given all this, why would Évariste Galois have been buried in a common grave? If anyone can enlighten me, I would appreciate it.

If you're interested in a longer post, more pictures, and more details, click here to see my previous post.

For now let's raise a toast to the genius who before age 20 changed the very landscape of mathematics. Let's raise a toast, but unlike Galois, let's try not to get arrested. (IYKYK)