This is an excellent biography of an eminent historian of mathematical logic, who, in an earlier incarnation served as one of Trotsky's bodyguards, and was murdered at the age of 74 by a jealous ex-wife. Oh, he also had an affair with Frida Kahlo (amongst many others) and was one of the select few who abandoned Marxism, in part because, as a logician and mathematician, he could not stomach the logical absurdities of Engels. Anita Feferman, who knew van Heijenoort in later life, does ample justice ot this intriguing subject.