author
Katie Spalding
d. 1954
A mathematician-turned-writer with a sharp sense of humor, she turns the lives of famous thinkers into lively, surprising stories. Her nonfiction mixes real research with an easy, playful voice that makes big ideas feel approachable.
1 Audiobook
Le Petit Nord or, Annals of a Labrador Harbour
by Anne Grenfell, Katie Spalding
About the author
After spending about a decade studying maths, Katie Spalding earned a PhD in 2018. In several publisher and author profiles, she describes academia with the same self-aware wit that shapes her books, even joking that her years in maths may be the upper limit before people avoid you at parties.
She has written popular nonfiction that looks at brilliant people from unusual angles, including Edison's Ghosts: The Untold Weirdness of History's Greatest Geniuses and The Limits of Genius: The Surprising Stupidity of the World's Greatest Minds. Her work has also appeared in science and culture outlets such as IFLScience and Literary Hub.
What stands out most in her author bios is the combination of serious academic training and a breezy, funny style. She seems especially interested in making intellectual history feel human—full of odd choices, blind spots, and memorable details rather than distant legend.