RePoSS #11: The Mathematics of Niels Henrik Abel: Continuation ...

18 Chapter 2. Biography of NIELS HENRIK ABEL
Figure 2.1: NIELS HENRIK ABEL (1802–1829)
cal production was localized. All facts presented here have been taken from existing
literature, primarily HOLMBOE’S obituary, C. A. BJERKNES’ (1825–1903) biographies,
and STUBHAUG’S contextual biographical study. 4 References to these works will not
always be made explicit. I will deliberately desist from giving detailed analyses or
speculations concerning the personality and private life of ABEL except where sup-
ported by the biographies and ABEL’S correspondence.
2.1 Childhood and education
ABEL was born as the second son into an incumbent’s family on 5 August 1802.
ABEL’S father, S. G. ABEL (1772–1820), himself the son of a minister, had been ed-
ucated in Copenhagen and received a call to the rural parish of Finnøy in 1800 (see
figure 2.2).
Also in 1800, SØREN GEORG married A. M. SIMONSEN (1781–1846), the daughter
of a wealthy merchant, and together they had six children; five boys and a girl. In
1804, SØREN GEORG took over the more lucrative parish of Gjerstad from his father
who had died the year before. Nevertheless, due to the family increase, the costs of
educating the children, a nationalist sentiment to contribute to the founding of the
university, and the troubled times for the nation, the ABEL-family remained without
4 (Holmboe, 1829), (Bjerknes, 1880; Bjerknes, 1885; Bjerknes, 1930), (Stubhaug, 1996).