Évariste Galois is unquestionably one of the most famous mathematicians in the history of science—famous among mathematicians, because the theory that bears his name plays an important role in contemporary research, but also more widely known among people who are unfamiliar with mathematics or have no particular interest in it. Middle schools have been named after him; he has been the subject of a medium-length film, several biographies (some fictionalized), and even a novel in 2015 and a children's comic book in 2021!
Yet when Évariste Galois died on May 31, 1832, he was far from being the renowned mathematician he is today. He had, admittedly, published a few papers in the scientific journals of the time—the Annales de mathématiques pures et appliquées, edited by Joseph Diez Gergonne, and the Bulletin des sciences mathématiques, astronomiques, physiques et chimiques, overseen by Baron de Férussac. But his most accomplished research, presented in the Mémoire sur les conditions de résolubilité des équations par radicaux, had received a lukewarm report from the academicians appointed to assess it and had therefore not been recommended for publication. Galois also left his subsequent research unfinished, sometimes in little more than draft form. How, then, did he posthumously become such an iconic figure in the history of mathematics?
Being recognized by the mathematical community as a "great" mathematician, whose work is considered particularly important and remains widely used, is not enough to create an icon. Many mathematicians of the past produced essential results that have left their mark on present-day mathematics and are still used every day. Looking at the same historical period as Galois, we might think of Joseph Fourier, to whom we owe the Fourier transforms, or Augustin-Louis Cauchy, who was notably one of the architects of complex analysis. Yet complex analysis is not called "Cauchy theory," and Fourier, despite an eventful life—he took part in the Egyptian Expedition initiated by Bonaparte, served as prefect of Isère under the Empire, and later endured a period of disgrace because of his Napoleonic sympathies—is nowhere near as famous as Galois. What, then, is so special about Galois that accounts for his fame?
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