Summary
"Martin Gardner has an inquiring mind" would be the winning entry in an understatement-of-the-year contest. After a slow start - he didn't write his first book until he was 38 - the Oklahoma native started turning out books, good, solid, well-researched and well- written books, so regularly that today his total exceeds 70.
Generally termed a "recreational mathematician," Mr. Gardner, who turned 95 in October without showing any signs of slowing down (when's the last time you read a book in which the author suddenly tells you he's 94 and writing from his room in an assisted living facility?), has also been called: "U.S. logician, mathematician, puzzle constructor, and popularizer of logic and mathematics"; "game inventor and author"; "American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics"; "the world's best-known recreational mathematician"; and, "an incredibly prolific journalist and essayist with eclectic interests."See the full content of this document
Extract
Essays On Faith, Recreational Math
Not bad for a guy whose major, at the University of Chicago (about which more later), was philosophy.
In 1956, Mr. Gardner, having knocked around a bit doing public relations and journalism, was working on a children's magazine called "Humpty Dumpty" (I swear). Four years earlier, he'd written his first book, "In the Name of Science" and had another one due out that year ("M...See the full content of this document
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