IF EVER a man merited the name of mastermind, it was the great English physicist, Isaac Newton.

The discovery of the Laws of Motion, universal gravitation, the reflecting telecope, and calculus — these and more of Newton's contributions are the very cornerstones of modern science. It was also Newton's experimental approach, combined with his astonishing insights, that paved the way for modern scientific inquiry.

Well illustrated and simply written, this is the life portrait of England's lonely genius. Here is Newton as experimenter and absentminded professor, brilliant creator and shy eccentric. His long career began with failure on a Lincolnshire farm and ended with success as President of the Royal Society, Master of the Mint, and Dean of British science.

Newton, at the end of his remarkable life of creation, said: "I seem to have been like a boy, playing on the seashore... while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

From the dust jacket of the "A First Biography" edition