There is something else, though, at which he was clearly superior to Einstein or Rutherford or any other great genius: and that is at turning any work of the intellect, major or minor or sheer play, into a work of art. It was that gift above all, I think, which made him, almost without realizing it, purvey such intellectual delight. When A Mathematician’s Apology was first published, Graham Greene in a review wrote that along with Henry James’s notebooks, this was the best account of what it was like to be a creative artist. Thinking about the effect Hardy had on all those round him, I believe
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