This is a paperbound reprint of a 1997 work. Gödel held that the universe is rationally organized and can be comprehended by the human mind, that the universe is causally deterministic, that there is a conceptual and mental realm apart from the physical world, and that understanding must come from introspection. He also held a legion of irrational fears, one of which, his fear of eating, finally killed him. Dawson (mathematics, Pennsylvania State U.), who catalogued Gödel's papers and co-edited the Collected Works, prepared this biography for a mathematically sophisticated audience