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> Mathematicians like to believe the likely apocryphal tale that Nobel didn't endow a prize for math because the likely first winner was sleeping with his wife

It’s certainly apocryphal. Alfred Nobel never married.



In that case, the likely first winner was sleeping with all of his wives.


That you know of -- it's possible he was secretly married, and his secret wife was sleeping with the likely first winner of a Nobel prize in mathematics.

Unlikely, yes, but the tale is not certainly apocryphal ;)


He had no secret wife, but 3 non-secret official affairs. The last one with Sophie Hess lasting for 18 years, in which she had a second lover. https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20190122/540398/Die-geheimen-Lie...

The rumor is that his first love interest in Russia Anna Desry preferred the mathematician Franz Lemarges.


https://simanaitissays.com/2018/08/23/on-alfred-nobel-and-go... and https://simanaitissays.com/2018/08/24/on-alfred-nobel-and-go... is possibly a better reference here.


Google gives the following definition of apocryphal:

> (of a story or statement) of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true.

So it seems to be certainly apocryphal.




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