In information theory thermodynamics, Jeremy Campbell (c. 1952-) is an English-born American journalist noted for his 1982 book Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy, Language, and Life, described as “an attempt to tell the story of information theory and how it evolved”, in which Campbell reports his communication interviews, via letters and conversations, of several key figures surrounding the famous 1948 article “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” by American electrical engineer Claude Shannon, the creator of information theory. [1] Campbell gives a simplified and positive spin on the relation between information and thermodynamics, in a way that positions information as an equal counterpart to matter and energy. [2]

Norbert Wiener
Campbell reports that Shannon may have first come across the notion of entropy from American mathematician Norbert Wiener, noted for his 1948 entropy-themed book Cybernetics, whom Shannon studied under at MIT in the early 1930s. In 1947, for instance, according to electrical engineering Robert Fano, Wiener was said to have walked into Fano’s room several times, while Fano was working on his doctoral dissertation, touting the phrase “information is entropy”, then turn around and walk out again without saying another word. [3]

Hermann Weyl
Campbell also claims that the notion of an information measure with an entropy form came to Shannon when he was a research fellow at Princeton in 1940-41, while studying under German mathematician Hermann Weyl. [3]

John Neumann
In reference to the infamous entropy quotation by Hungarian-born American chemical engineer John Neumann that “no one knows what entropy is”, supposedly said to Shannon, in circa 1940s, on a suggestion as to what to call his new information variable, Campbell reports that: [4]

“Shannon does not remember von Neumann giving him such advice. However, Myron Tribus has a clear recollection of hearing Shannon tell him this story during a conversation in Shannon’s office at MIT on April, 1961.”

References
1. (a) Campbell, Jeremy. (2002). The Liar’s Tale. W.W. Norton & Co.
(b) Back cover: Campbell is the Washington correspondent for The Evening Standard.
2. Campbell, Jeremy. (1982). Grammatical Man - Information, Entropy, Language, and Life (pgs. 16). New York: Simon and Schuster.
3. ibid (pgs. 20-21).
4. ibid (pgs. 32, 277).

External links
● Jeremy Campbell – LibraryThing.com
● Jeremy Campbell – GoodReads.com