He was such a good man, a productive and useful member of our society, and I can anticipate the international reaction to his passing. His books – so many of them – remain to remind us of his contributions to us all. His last one was dedicated to me, and I am just so proud of that fact, so very proud…
It will take a while, but Martin would want me to get on with my life, so I will.
Martin Gardner (born October 21, 1914, died May 22, 2010) was an American mathematics and science writer specialising in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing micromagic, stage magic, pseudoscience, literature (especially the writings of Lewis Carroll), philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion. He wrote the Mathematical Games column in Scientific American from 1956 to 1981, and published over 70 books. Gardner reportedly coined the term mathemagician.
Today, after I learned the news, I found again on my shelf a copy of his Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, which I picked up at the Brisbane convention. I suggest if you have not read his work, that you do so.
Here is the first two of his series, ‘On The Nature Of Things’, available via YouTube.
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I’m sad about this – though 95 years ain’t too bad really
I remember spending many hours of my youth with books of his collected maths/logic puzzles. They were absolutely wonderful. As I read on Twitter earlier today: now the world is less smart. I must go and find those puzzle books now
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