In late 1987, when magazines and newspapers in the world were full of articles marketing the birth centenary of Srinivasa Ramanujan, Robert Kanigel asked: Ramanujan Who ? of an agent of the publisher (Charles Scribner's Sons) who was interested in bringing out a biography of Ramanujan. Inspired by the earlier writings on Ramanujan mentioned above, and intrigued by Hindu culture, Kanigel travelled to places that figured in Ramanujan's life in South India for five weeks.

Kanigel interviewed the aging Janakiammal - the then living link to the legend - the relatives and friends of Ramanujan, and mathematicians. He was encouraged by the Gang of three mathematicians - George E. Andrews, the discoverer and propagator of the Lost Note Book; Bruce C. Berndt who took upon himself the arduous and challenging task of editing the three Note Books of Ramanujan containing about 3000 theorems without proofs since May 1977, and Richard Askey who spearheaded the commissioning of the bust of Ramanujan by Paul Granlund to present it to Mrs. Ramanujan. Kanigel brought out eventually (1991) a delightfully readable biography entitled: The Man Who Knew Infinity: a life of the Genius Ramanujan [X]. In this 438 pages book, Kanigel has intertwined into a braid three stories: the story of Ramanujan, the inscrutable intellect with a simple heart; the story of G.H. Hardy, the mathematician par excellence who not only recognized the genius in the tattered garb in which it was clothed but also strove to bring Ramanujan to the attention of the world and a silhoute of the mathematics of Ramanujan.

The book consists of eight chapters, a prologue, an epilogue and some forty pages of notes (in small print). The first three chapters deal with Ramanujan's childhood in the South Indian scenario, his early mathematical exploits and his search for patrons. These portions rely heavily upon the source material referred to earlier on. Kanigel has exercised the liberty of an experienced author to describe vividly the events of the period 1887-1913, as if he were an eye-witness.