This book tells the story of a young American boy blinding himself by accident and ending up an internationally well-known expert on harmonic analysis and wavelet theory. Born in 1939 and becoming blind in 1944, the author experiences being one of the very first blind students main-streamed through the public school system, college, and university. The story is by and large a happy one and we are given many examples of relatives, friends, teachers, and strangers helping the blind boy, the blind adolescent or the blind man with all these practical things that are so self-evident to us seeing persons that we just take them for granted: how to find your way from one classroom to another in a school full of children running around, how to match the colors of your clothes, how to order from a menu, ow to find an empty seat in a seminar room, or how to travel to a conference. All these important details of life are commented on in a positive spirit. The author lives in a friendly world, even if that world is arranged for seeing people by seeing people. All in all this is a nice book to read. It gives a hint at what it was like to grow up blind in America during the second half of the last century. It also gives a picture of how it is possible for a blind boy to become a world-famous expert in mathematics. Finally, it shows how one may enjoy life in spite of being blind in a very much visually designed world.

Baggett's writing style is skilled but unpretentious resulting in a book that is a very easy read. The reader becomes comfortable with the author as a regular person who is experiencing life in an unusual manner. He keeps the technical mathematics to an absolute minimum. As a result, the book can be enjoyed by anyone interested in the process of succeeding at a high level in spite of a major handicap.

Many will know Professor Lawrence (Larry) Baggett for his work on harmonic analysis, wavelet theory and unitary representations of groups. He is a world leading mathematician and has been for many decades. However, there is something you might not know about Larry, he is blind. This book serves as Larry's memoirs, describing everything from his musical exploits and mathematical pursuits, to his personal life. Many of these moments, feelings and activities have been experienced by each of us, and often he describes a professional environment that lots of us are familiar with. However, Larry talks about them from a completely different, and in many cases, unique position. Larry lost his sight after an accident with a paring knife at the age of five. But this did not hold him back; he went on to be the first blind student in the Orlando public school system, the first admitted to Davidson College, and the first taken on a a doctoral student in mathematics at the University of Washington. Larry is a teacher, and this exudes throughout the book, he never misses an opportunity to educate. Whether this be description and explanation of fun, classic, maths problems that crop up in anecdotes or some of the remarkable connections between mathematics and music. There is also considerable explanation of how Larry actually accomplishes a number of 'everyday' tasks, such as how Braille works and he reads, and writes music. The book is written for the layman, and as such does not really delve into Larry's own research in any great detail. There are a couple of paragraphs of basic description towards the end but it is more of an autobiography of a blind man growing up in mid 20th century America, pushing boundaries, than that of a world class mathematician. Throughout, this is a heart-warming and humorous book which I would recommend to all those who enjoy (auto) biographies. Larry's passions and interests are clear -- music, maths and his family.