Stephenson:Neal:Quicksilver:660:What of Newton? (Neal Stephenson)

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

What is presented in this chapter is a fictionalized account of how Newton came to write Principia Mathematica. The historical truth can be found in many books, notably Westfall's Never at Rest. A quick way of summarizing it is that in this novel, the fictional characters Roger Comstock and Daniel Waterhouse are shown playing roles that are very loosely analogous to what Edmund Halley did in real life.