Elias Canetti (1905-1994), Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981: 'Die Blendung' (German = 'The Deception'), English title: Auto-da-Fé (also released as 'The Tower of Babel'); first published in 1935, banned by the Nazis; deals with the dangers inherent in believing that rigid, dissociated intellectualism and detached, dogmatic scholarship can prevail over evil, chaos, and destruction.

Canettis book mentions Eratosthenes (3rd century B.C.), the great librarian of the Library of Alexandria and also a mathematician. Eratosthenes is said to have become blind in old age and it has been claimed that he, unable to read, committed suicide by starvation.

Other Links:
Authors' Calendar at Pegasos
History of Mathematics
Ancient and Lost Civilizations