Copernicus: A Brief Guide to His Life and Work

Originally published in 1910 as a portion of the author’s larger “Masters of Achievement,” this Kindle edition, equivalent in length to a physical book of approximately 16 pages, describes the life and work of Polish astronomer Copernicus, who, in the early 1500s, proposed that planets orbit in circles around the sun.

Sample passage:
There appears to be little doubt that the philosopher began to meditate on the ideas which led him to the theory of the solar system set forth in his book—“De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium”—at least as early as 1507. The publication of this book, however, he delayed for many years. During the greater part of that time he was employed in collecting, by careful observation, the materials of which it is constructed and the opinions on which it is based, comprising the whole of what was afterward declared by him long before the work itself appeared. He delayed to announce them formally, until he was able at the same time to show that they were not random guesses, taken up from a mere affectation of novelty; but that with their assistance he had compiled tables of the planetary motions, which were immediately acknowledged, even by those whose minds revolted most against the means by which they were obtained, to be far more correct than any which until then had appeared.

About the authors:
Henry Woldmar Ruoff (1865-1935) was an author whose other works include “The Century Book of Facts,” “The Capitals of the World,” and “Leaders of Men.”