"Fascinating."—Publishers Weekly "The periodic chart now hangs on the wall of countless classrooms, and occupies textbooks, websites and T-shirts. . . . Working long before nuclear scientists reached Los Alamos, Mendeleev was this kingdom’s first successful cartographer."—Simon Schaffer, London Review of Books "Engaging. . . . [T]he most comprehensive biography in English about Mendeleev."—Ursula Klein, Physics Today "Highly readable."—Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Nature "This fine book presents a compelling portrait of Mendeleev as a Russian thinker, a member of the small cohort of Petersburg elite who shaped Russian science, politics, and culture. . . . For anyone interested in Mendeleev or the place of science in late nineteenth-century Russia, this is required reading."—Mark B. Adams, Slavic Review "A serious and interesting exploration of the life and times of Dmitrii Mendeleev."—Carmen Giunta, Foundations of Chemistry