Hardy’s Letter to Dewsbury

In one respect Mr. Ramanujan has been most unfortunate. The war has naturally had disastrous results on the progress of mathematical research. It has distracted three-quarters of the interest that would otherwise have been taken in his work, and has made it almost impossible to bring his results to the notice of the continental mathematicians most certain to appreciate it. It has moreover deprived him of the teaching of Mr. Littlewood, one of the great benefits which his visit to England was intended to secure. All this will pass; and, in spite of it, it is already safe to say that Mr. Ramanujan has justified abundantly all the hopes that were based upon his work in India, and has shown that he possesses powers as remarkable in their way as those of any living mathematician.

 

 

Hardy periodically sent official reports to the Registrar of the University of Madras about Ramanujan’s progress. In one such report, he has lamented about the war marring the progress of Ramanujan’s research work in mathematics.