George Sarton animated the discipline of history of science in America. This monograph, the first full-length study of Sarton’s life and work, traces his youth and education in Ghent, Belgium, and his stormy marriage to the talented English artist Mabel Elwes. It follows George and Mabel Sarton in their path from idealistic refugees fleeing the invasion of Belgium in 1914 to destitute intellectuals at Harvard University. For half a century, history of science as an academic specialty owed much to George Sarton’s visions and anxieties, especially as they were expressed in his marriage. Mabel Sarton sustained his enterprise and contributed to its form, which included parts of socialism, pacifism, aesthetics, and faith. Current themes present in George Sarton’s early work include the common endeavor of artists and scientists, the private nature of scientific innovation, and the history of science as a bridge between the cultures of the humanities and the natural sciences.

Lewis Pyenson is Dean of the Graduate College at Western Michigan University. Formerly he was Research Professor of History at the Center for Louisiana Studies and Adjunct Professor of Cognitive Science, Philosophy, Physics, and Modern Languages at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of the History of Science. In 2005 he lectured in the George Sarton Chair at the University of Ghent in Belgium.  

This is a spectacular and completely original book. Lewis Pyenson has recreated both biographies and the narratives of George and Mabel Sarton’s relationship by marshaling a stunning range of sources, most importantly the incredibly detailed epistolary relationship of the two principals. At the same time, the book explores George’s intellectual world both in Belgium and the United States and thereby draws out the interesting web of ideas and personalities that formed the core of the nascent discipline of the History of Science, whose foundational institutional organization was largely George’s work.
Thomas Glick, Professor of History
Boston University

Lewis Pyenson is a historian of science of extraordinary breadth no less than remarkable depth and a writer of real distinction. He succeeds in bringing George and Mabel Sarton to life and giving the readers an intimate look into the inwardness of their marriage.
Charles Gillispie, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History of Science Emeritus
Princeton University

This is an important book for the scholarly communities of letters, criticism, and history and philosophy of science. The conceptual, language, and work skills and habits possessed by Lewis Pyenson are rarely found today in the history of science tribe.
C. Stewart Gillmor, Professor of History & Science, Emeritus
Wesleyan University