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In February 1943, in wartime Dublin, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger gave a series of public lectures at Trinity College asking how the events inside a living cell could be explained by physics and chemistry. He had already won the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1933, for the wave equation that carries his name. The lectures became What Is Life? (1944), a book of under 100 pages that sold more than 100,000 copies; Francis Crick later wrote to him that he and James Watson had both been influenced by it. In his later books Schrödinger turned to the questions physics leaves open: the Greek roots of science, consciousness, and the Vedanta idea that individual minds are not separate. This guide covers his four key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 4 key books · 1944–1961 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Erwin Schrödinger’s best-known book is What Is Life? (1944), followed by Nature and the Greeks (1954), Mind and Matter (1958) and My View of the World (1961 in German). Start with What Is Life?; the later books show where his thinking on mind and consciousness went next.
Where to Start with Erwin Schrödinger
If you want his most influential book
→ What Is Life? (1944) — the lectures that sent Crick and Watson towards the gene.
If you want his thinking on consciousness
→ Mind and Matter (1958) — the 1956 Cambridge lectures on mind and the scientific world-picture.
If you want his personal philosophy and Vedanta
→ My View of the World (1961) — his own statement of how he saw the world.
If you want the history of scientific thinking
→ Nature and the Greeks (1954) — back to the early Greek philosophers.
4 Erwin Schrödinger Books, in Order
What Is Life?
Based on lectures Schrödinger gave at Trinity College Dublin in February 1943. He argued that heredity must rest on a stable “aperiodic crystal” carrying a “hereditary code-script”, a regular but non-repeating structure he compared to a tapestry rather than wallpaper. Maurice Wilkins, Francis Crick and James Watson all said the book helped draw them to the problem of the gene; in August 1953 Crick wrote to Schrödinger that the term “aperiodic crystal” seemed likely to prove very apt.
Nature and the Greeks
A short book of under 100 pages, published by Cambridge University Press, in which Schrödinger goes back to the early Greek philosophers to trace where the scientific way of looking at the world began. Cambridge now publishes it in one volume with his Science and Humanism.
Mind and Matter
The Tarner Lectures he gave at Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1956, on consciousness and its place in a scientific picture of the world. Cambridge University Press later published it together with What Is Life? in a single volume, which is how most readers find it today.
My View of the World
His own philosophical statement, published in German as Meine Weltansicht in the year of his death and later translated into English. It is the clearest place to see the influence of the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta, which he first met through Schopenhauer, and his sympathy for the idea expressed in tat tvam asi, “that art thou”.
In What Order to Read Erwin Schrödinger
The books are short and stand alone, so the order is yours. Reading them by date shows a physicist moving outward: from the physics of the living cell, to the origins of science, to consciousness and the self.
What Is Life? and Mind and Matter are usually sold in one volume, so many readers take them together. Leave My View of the World until last: it is the most personal of the four and assumes you know the questions the others raise.
A reading path
1. What Is Life? (1944)
2. Mind and Matter (1958)
3. Nature and the Greeks (1954)
4. My View of the World (1961)
Other Books by Erwin Schrödinger
Beyond the 4 key books: 3 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Essays and technical books
3
3 books · 1935–1956
- 1935Science and the Human Temperamentan early collection published in English by Allen & Unwin
- 1950Space-Time Structurea short technical book on general relativity
- 1956Expanding Universesa short technical book on cosmology
The years · 1887–1961
Quick facts about Erwin Schrödinger
- Known for
- Schrödinger is known for the wave equation of quantum mechanics (1926), the cat thought experiment (1935) and What Is Life?, the book that brought physicists to the question of heredity.
- 1887
- Born in Vienna
- 1926
- Publishes the wave equation
- 1933
- Nobel Prize in Physics, with Paul Dirac
- 1944
- What Is Life?
- 1961
- Dies in Vienna, aged 73
- Born
- 12 August 1887, Vienna, Austria-Hungary
- Died
- 4 January 1961, Vienna, of tuberculosis; buried in Alpbach, Tyrol
- Nobel Prize
- Physics, 1933, shared with Paul Dirac
- Worked
- Zurich, Berlin (succeeding Max Planck, 1927), Oxford, Graz, then the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1940–1955
- Citizenship
- Became an Irish citizen in 1948
- Married
- Annemarie (Anny) Bertel, in 1920
The red mark is 1944: What Is Life?, the lectures that influenced Crick, Watson and Wilkins.
How Erwin Schrödinger Writes: A Physicist Thinking Aloud
Schrödinger’s books began as lectures for general audiences, and they keep the shape of a talk: one large question, stated at the start, then worked through step by step. What Is Life? opens by asking how the events inside a living organism can be explained by physics and chemistry, and the rest of the book is an attempt at an answer.
He reaches for images rather than equations. Genes become an aperiodic crystal, like a tapestry instead of repeating wallpaper; elsewhere he compares them to local government offices passing messages in a shared code, and admits the comparison is “less becoming a scientist than a poet”. He is also open about what he does not know, and builds on other people’s work, such as the 1935 proposal by Delbrück and Timoféeff-Ressovsky that genes are large molecules.
His later books add philosophy to the physics. Schopenhauer led him to the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta, and he returns to their non-dual view of mind in Mind and Matter and My View of the World. He was careful about it, though: he valued Eastern philosophy while accepting that some of its ideas do not fit empirical science, and he described himself as an atheist.
Frequently asked questions about Erwin Schrödinger’s books
How many books has Erwin Schrödinger written?
This page lists seven: four key books for general readers, from What Is Life? (1944) to My View of the World (1961), and three other books from 1935 to 1956. He also wrote technical works and many scientific papers, including the 1926 papers on wave mechanics.
What are Erwin Schrödinger’s books in order?
What Is Life? (1944), Nature and the Greeks (1954), Mind and Matter (1958) and My View of the World (published in German as Meine Weltansicht in 1961).
Where should I start with Erwin Schrödinger?
What Is Life?. It is short, written for a general audience, and it is his most influential book. Most editions also include Mind and Matter, which is the natural next step.
What is Erwin Schrödinger’s most famous book?
What Is Life? (1944), based on his public lectures at Trinity College Dublin in February 1943. It sold more than 100,000 copies and is counted among the most influential scientific writings of the 20th century.
Did What Is Life? influence the discovery of DNA’s structure?
It influenced the people who made it. James Watson said the book made him decide to search for the structure of the gene, Maurice Wilkins was drawn to the “aperiodic crystal” idea, and in a letter of 12 August 1953 Francis Crick told Schrödinger that he and Watson had both been influenced by it.
What did Schrödinger believe about Vedanta and consciousness?
Through Schopenhauer he came to the Upanishads and Advaita Vedanta, and he expressed sympathy for tat tvam asi, “that art thou”, the idea that the individual self and the whole are not separate. Some commentators argue this non-dual view influenced his work. It is most visible in Mind and Matter and My View of the World.
Is Schrödinger’s cat in his books?
No. He proposed the cat thought experiment in a 1935 paper, after corresponding with Albert Einstein, to show the problem with applying quantum mechanics to everyday objects. In the same year he coined the term “entanglement”.
Did Erwin Schrödinger win the Nobel Prize?
Yes. He shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Paul Dirac. The work behind it was his wave equation, published in 1926.
Why did Trinity College Dublin rename the Schrödinger Lecture Theatre?
Walter Moore’s 1989 biography, drawing on Schrödinger’s diaries, described his relationships with very young girls. An Irish Times article in December 2021 brought this to wide public attention. In 2022 Trinity’s School of Physics renamed the room the Physics Lecture Theatre, removed his portrait and cancelled that year’s Schrödinger Lecture. Members of his family have objected to Moore’s account, and some scientists disagreed with the decision.
When did Erwin Schrödinger die?
On 4 January 1961 in Vienna, aged 73, of tuberculosis. He had returned to Vienna in 1956 after sixteen years in Dublin, and is buried in Alpbach in the Tyrol.
Footnotes
- Erwin Schrödinger — Wikipedia
- Perspectives: What is life? — The Nobel Prize
- Schrödinger lecture theatre at Trinity College Dublin renamed — Physics World, 2022
- Erwin Schrödinger — book reviews, University of York
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“How can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?”
— Erwin Schrödinger, What Is Life? (1944)
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