In 1859, Bernhard Riemann, a little-known thirty-two year old mathematician, made a hypothesis while presenting a paper to the Berlin Academy titled “On the Number of Prime Numbers Less Than a Given Quantity.” Today, after 150 years of careful research and exhaustive study, the Riemann Hyphothesis remains unsolved, with a one-million-dollar prize earmarked for the first person to conquer it.

Alternating passages of extraordinarily lucid mathematical exposition with chapters of elegantly composed biography and history, Prime Obsession is a fascinating and fluent account of an epic mathematical mystery that continues to challenge and excite the world.

根据所受的教育,约翰·德比希尔（John Derbyshire）是一位数学家和语言学家；根据所从事的职业,他是一位系统分析师；而在业余时间,他是一位著名的作家。

他的成名作是《梦见柯立芝》（Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream）,这部l996年出版的小说大受人们欢迎,亚德利（Jonathan Yardley）在《华盛顿邮报·图书世界》（Washington Post Book World）上对它赞赏有加,《纽约时报·书评》（The New York Times Book Review）、《纽约客》（The New Yorker）、《波士顿环球报》（The Bosun Globe）等报刊也一致给予好评。他的作品还频繁出现在《国家评论》（National Review）和《新标准》（The New Criterion）杂志上。

德比希尔在英国出生并成长．约20年前来到美国安家。他目前和妻子及两个孩子住在纽约的亨廷顿。