Martin Gardner

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Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner (born October 21, 1914, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population in the United States. With an estimated population of 384,037 in 2007, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 905,755 residents projected to reach one million between 2010 and 2012....
) is a popular American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics

Recreational mathematics

Recreational mathematics is an umbrella term, referring to mathematical puzzles and mathematical games.Not all problems in this field require a knowledge of advanced mathematics, and thus, recreational mathematics often piques the curiosity of non-mathematicians, and inspires their further study of mathematics....
, but with interests encompassing stage magic

Magic (illusion)

Magic is a performing art that entertains an audience by creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats, using purely natural means....
, pseudoscience

Pseudoscience

Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
(especially Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll , was an England author, mathematics, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer....
), philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
, scientific skepticism

Scientific skepticism

Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism , sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a scientific or practical, epistemology position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence....
, and religion

Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
. He wrote the "Mathematical Games

Mathematical game

A mathematical game is a multiplayer game whose rules, strategies, and outcomes can be studied and explained by mathematics. Examples of such games are Tic-tac-toe and Dots and Boxes, to name a couple....
" column in Scientific American
Scientific American

Scientific American is a popular science science magazine, published since August 28, 1845, making it one of the oldest continuously published magazines in the United States....
from 1956 to 1981 and has published over 70 books.

Gardner coined the term mathemagician

Mathemagician

A mathemagician is a mathematician who is also a Magician .The name "mathemagician" was probably first applied to Martin Gardner, but has since been used to describe many mathematician/magicians, including Arthur T....
.

in Gardner grew up in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, he served for several years in the U.S.

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Quotations

There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry.

The Mathematical Magic Show

Encyclopedia

Martin Gardner (born October 21, 1914, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Recreational mathematics

Magic (illusion)

Magic is a performing art that entertains an audience by creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats, using purely natural means....
, pseudoscience

Pseudoscience

Literature

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll , was an England author, mathematics, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer....
), philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
, scientific skepticism

Scientific skepticism

Religion

Mathematical game

Mathemagician

Biography

Martin Gardner grew up in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma

World War II

Yeoman

Yeoman is a noun used to indicate a variety of positions or social classes and is also used as a complimentary adjective in reference to a diligent, dependable worker or the work of such a person....
.

After the war, Gardner attended college at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park, Chicago neighborhood of Chicago. Although an older university by the same name existed prior to its founding, the modern University of Chicago credits its founding to the oil magnate John D....
and earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy there. He also attended graduate school at the University of Chicago, but did not earn an advanced degree.

For many decades, Gardner, his wife Charlotte, and their two sons lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

Hastings-on-Hudson is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Village in Westchester County, New York, United States. As a village, it is located in the southwest part of the Political subdivisions of New York State#Town of Greenburgh, New York....
, where he earned his living as an independent author, publishing books with several different publishers, and also publishing hundreds of magazine articles in various magazines. Either by choice or coincidence (given his specialty in mathematics), he lived on Euclid

Euclid

Euclid , floruit 300 BC, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematics and is often referred to as the Father of Geometry. He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I ....
Avenue. In 1979, he and his wife semi-retired and moved to Hendersonville, North Carolina

Hendersonville, North Carolina

Hendersonville is a city in Henderson County, North Carolina, North Carolina, United States, 22 miles southeast of Asheville, North Carolina. In 1900, 1,917 persons lived in Hendersonville; in 1910, 2,818; and in 1940, 5,381 people lived here....
. His wife died in 2000.

In 2002 Gardner moved to Norman, Oklahoma

Norman, Oklahoma

Norman is the largest city in and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and is part of the Oklahoma City Metroplex Metropolitan Statistical Area....
, where his son, James Gardner, is a professor of education at the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma, abbreviated OU, is a coeducational public university research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma....
.

Recreational mathematics

Martin Gardner more or less single-handedly sustained and nurtured interest in recreational mathematics in the U.S. for a large part of the 20th century. He is best known for his decades-long efforts in popular mathematics and science journalism, particularly through his "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American.

The "Mathematical Games" column ran from 1956 to 1981 and introduced many subjects to a wider audience, including:

Flexagon
Flexagon

In geometry, flexagons are planar models made from folded strips of paper that can be folded, or flexed, to reveal a number of hidden faces....
s
John Horton Conway
John Horton Conway

John Horton Conway is a prolific mathematician active in the theory of finite group , knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory....
's Game of Life
Conway's Game of Life

The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the United Kingdom mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970....
Polyomino
Polyomino

In recreational mathematics, a polyomino is a polyform with the square as its base form. It is a connected space shape formed as the union of one or more identical squares in distinct locations on the plane , taken from the regular square tiling, such that every square can be connected to every other square through a sequence of shared...
es
The Soma cube
Soma cube

The Soma cube is a mechanical puzzle invented by Piet Hein during a lecture on quantum mechanics conducted by Werner Heisenberg. Seven pieces made out of unit cubes must be assembled into a 3x3x3 cube....
The board game
Board game

File:Game_of_life_board.jpgA board game is a game in which counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a "board" . As do other form of entertainment, board games can represent nearly any subject....
"Nash", also called "Hex
Hex (board game)

Hex is a board game played on a hex map, theoretically of any size and several possible shapes, but traditionally as an 11x11 rhombus. Other popular dimensions are 13x13 and 19x19 as a result of the game's relationship to the older game of Go ....
" and sometimes called "John", independently created by Piet Hein
Piet Hein (Denmark)

Piet Hein was a Danish scientist, mathematician, inventor, author, and poet, often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym "Kumbel" meaning "tomb stone"....
and John Forbes Nash
John Forbes Nash

John Forbes Nash, Jr. , is an American mathematician and economist whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations provided insight into the forces that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life....
Tangrams
Penrose tiling
Penrose tiling

File:Penrose Tiling .svgA Penrose tiling is a nonperiodic tessellation generated by an aperiodic tiling of prototiles named after Roger Penrose, who investigated these sets in the 1970s....
Cryptanalysis
Cryptanalysis

Cryptanalysis is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information which is normally required to do so....
/public key cryptography/trapdoor ciphers/the RSA-129 cryptographic challenge
The work of M. C. Escher
M. C. Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher , usually referred to as M.C. Escher , was a Netherlands Graphic arts. He is known for his often mathematically-inspired woodcuts, lithography, and mezzotints....
Fractals

In 1981, on Gardner's retirement, the column was replaced by Douglas Hofstadter

Douglas Hofstadter

Douglas Richard Hofstadter is an United States academic whose research focuses on consciousness, thinking and creativity. He is best known for G?del, Escher, Bach, first published in 1979, for which he was awarded the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction....
's "Metamagical Themas

Metamagical Themas

Metamagical Themas is an eclectic collection of articles written for Scientific American during the early 1980s by Douglas Hofstadter, and published together as a book in 1985 by Basic Books ....
", a name that is an anagram

Anagram

An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place....
of "Mathematical Games".

Gardner also wrote a "puzzle" story column for (Isaac) Asimov's Science Fiction
Asimov's Science Fiction

Asimov's Science Fiction is an United States science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy and perpetuates the name of author and biochemist Isaac Asimov....
magazine for a while in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Pseudoscience

Gardner's uncompromising attitude toward pseudoscience has made him one of the world's foremost anti-pseudoscience

Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience is any knowledge, methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, or that is made to appear to be scientific, but which does not adhere to the scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, or otherwise lacks scientific status....
polemicists of the last half of the twentieth century. His book Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science was Martin Gardner's second book, and has become a classic in the literature of entertaining scientific skepticism....
(1952, revised 1957) is a classic and seminal work of the skeptical movement

Scientific skepticism

Horace Fletcher

Horace Fletcher was an United States health-Food faddism of the Victorian era who earned the nickname "The Great Masticator," by arguing that food should be chewed thirty two times ? or, about 100 times per minute ? before being swallowed: "Nature will castigate those who don't masticate." He invented elaborate justifications for his claim...
, creationism

Creationism

Creationism is the religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were Creation myth in their original form by a deity or deities....
, organic farming

Organic farming

Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies on crop rotation, green manure, compost, biological pest control, and mechanical cultivation to maintain soil productivity and control pest s, excluding or strictly limiting the use of synthetic fertilizers and synthetic pesticides, plant growth regulators, livestock feed additives, and gen...
, Charles Fort

Charles Fort

Charles Hoy Fort was an United States writer and researcher into anomaly .Jerome Clark writes that Fort was "essentially a Satire hugely skeptical of human beings ? especially scientists ? claims to ultimate knowledge"....
, Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner was an Austrians philosopher, literary scholar, educator, architect, playwright, social thinker, and Esotericism. After gaining initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher, at the beginning of the twentieth century he founded a new spiritual movement, Anthroposophy, as an esoteric philosophy growing...
, Dianetics

Dianetics

Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the relationship between the spirit, mind and body that were developed by science fiction writer L....
, unidentified flying objects, dowsing

Dowsing

Dowsing, sometimes called divining, doodlebugging , or water finding or water witching, is a practice that attempts to locate hidden water wells, buried metals or ores, gemstones, or other objects as well as currents of earth radiation without the use of scientific apparatus....
, extra-sensory perception

Extra-sensory perception

Extrasensory perception is the apparent ability to acquire information by paranormal means independent of any known physical senses or deduction from previous experience....
, the Bates method

Bates Method

The Bates method is an alternative medicine aimed at improving visual acuity. Eye-care physician William Bates, M.D., attributed nearly all sight problems to Habit strain of the eyes, and felt that glasses were never necessary....
and psychokinesis

Psychokinesis

The term psychokinesis , also known as telekinesis , sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy....
. This book and his subsequent efforts (Science: Good, Bad and Bogus, 1981; Order and Surprise, 1983, etc) earned him a wealth of detractors and antagonists in the field of "fringe science" with many of whom he kept up running dialogs (both public and private) for decades.

In 1976, he was a founding member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), and he wrote a column called "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" (originally "Notes of a Psi-Watcher") from 1983 to 2002 for that organization's periodical Skeptical Inquirer
Skeptical Inquirer

The Skeptical Inquirer is a bimonthly, United States magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry with the subtitle: The magazine for science and reason....
. These have been collected in five books: New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher (1988), On the Wild Side (1992), Weird Water and Fuzzy Logic (1996), Did Adam and Eve Have Navels (2000), and Are Universes Thicker than Blackberries (2003). Unusually for a senior CSICOP fellow and prominent skeptic of the paranormal, Gardner is a theist and professes belief in God

God

God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
, although he is critical of organized religion. Gardner has been quoted as saying that he regards parapsychology and other research into the paranormal as tantamount to "tempting God" and seeking "signs and wonders". He has, however, said that he feels it might be possible that prayers may be genuinely answered. They may minutely affect mathematical probabilities.

In 2001 Gardner sent James Randi

James Randi

James Randi is a Magician and Scientific skepticism best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge,...
, another challenger of pseudoscience, the key to an old theorem asserted in 1960 by Hugo Steinhaus

Hugo Steinhaus

Wladyslaw Hugo Dionizy Steinhaus was a Poland mathematician and educator....
: the one-seventh area triangle

One-seventh area triangle

In plane geometry, a triangle ABC contains a triangle of one-seventh area of ABC formed as follows: the sides of this triangle lie on lines p, q, r where...
found in an arbitrary triangle.

Religious and philosophical interests

Gardner has had an abiding fascination in religious belief. He has written repeatedly about what public figures such as Robert Maynard Hutchins, Mortimer Adler

Mortimer Adler

Mortimer Jerome Adler was an United States educator, philosopher, and popular author. As a philosopher he worked with Aristotelian and Thomistic thought....
, and William F. Buckley, Jr.

William F. Buckley, Jr.

William Frank Buckley Jr. was an United States Conservatism in the United States author and political commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally Print syndication newspaper columnist....
believed and whether their beliefs were logically consistent. In some cases, he has attacked prominent religious figures such as Mary Baker Eddy

Mary Baker Eddy

Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of the Christian Science movement. Deeply religious, she advocated Christian Science as a spiritual practical solution to health and moral issues....
on the grounds that their claims are unsupportable. His semi-autobiographical novel The Flight of Peter Fromm depicts a traditionally Protestant Christian man struggling with his faith, examining 20th century scholarship and intellectual movements and ultimately rejecting Christianity while remaining a theist. He describes his own belief as philosophical theism

Theism

Theism, in its most inclusive usage, is the belief in at least one deity. Less inclusive usages specify that the deity believed in be a distinct identifiable entity, thereby contrasted with pantheism....
inspired by the theology of the philosopher Miguel de Unamuno

Miguel de Unamuno

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was an essayist, novelist, poetry, theatre and philosopher from Bilbao, Biscay, Spain....
. While critical of organized religions, Gardner believes in God, claiming that this belief cannot be confirmed or disconfirmed by reason. At the same time, he is skeptical of claims that God has communicated with human beings through spoken or telepathic revelation

Revelation

Revelation is the act of revealing or disclosing, or making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication with the divinity....
or through miracle

Miracle

File:Folio 171r - The Raising of Lazarus.jpgA miracle is a sensibly perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker....
s in the natural world.

Gardner's philosophy may be summarized as follows: There is nothing supernatural

Supernatural

The term supernatural or supranatural pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe. Religious miracles are typically supernatural claims, as are Spell and curses, divination, the belief that there is an afterlife for the dead, and innumerable others....
, and nothing in human reason or visible in the world to compel people to believe in God

God

God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
. The mystery of existence

Existence

In common usage, existence is the world of which we are aware through our senses, but in philosophy the word has a more specialized meaning, and is often contrasted with essence....
is enchanting, but a belief in The Old One comes from faith

Faith

Faith is the confident belief in the truth of or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. It is also used for a belief, characteristically without proof....
without evidence

Evidence

Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either a) presumed to be true, or b) were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth....
. However, with faith and prayer

Prayer

Prayer is the act of communicating with a deity or spirit in worship. Specific forms of this may include praise, requesting divine providence, confessing sins, as an act of reparation or an expression of one's emotional expression....
people can find greater happiness than without. If there is an afterlife

Afterlife

The afterlife is the concept of a continued existence for the soul, spirit or mind of a being after biological death. The major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics....
, the loving Old One is real. "[To an atheist] the universe is the most exquisite masterpiece

Masterpiece

Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
ever constructed by nobody", from G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy and detective fiction....
, is one of Gardner's favorite quotes.

Gardner has said that he suspects that the fundamental nature of human consciousness

Consciousness

Consciousness is a difficult term to define, because the word is used and understood in a wide variety of ways, so that it frequently happens that what one person sees as a definition of consciousness is seen by others as about something else altogether....
may not be knowable or discoverable, unless perhaps a physics more profound than ("underlying") quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a set of principles underlying the most fundamental known description of all physical systems at the microscopic scale . Notable amongst these principles are both a dual wave-like and particle-like behavior of matter and radiation, and prediction of probabilities in situations where classical physics predicts certaintie...
is some day developed. In this regard, he says, he is an adherent of the "New Mysterianism

New Mysterianism

New Mysterianism is a philosophical position proposing that the hard problem of consciousness will never be explained; or at the least cannot be explained by the human mind at its current evolutionary stage....
".

Literary criticism and fiction

Gardner is considered an authority on Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll , was an England author, mathematics, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer....
; his annotated editions of Carroll's works were reissued in 1999 as The Annotated Alice
The Annotated Alice

The Annotated Alice is a work by Martin Gardner incorporating the text of Lewis Carroll's major tales: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as well as the original illustrations by John Tenniel....
. His viewpoint has recently come under some criticism from the proponents of the "Carroll Myth"

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll , was an England author, mathematics, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer....
; Gardner has hit back very aggressively against the most famous of these - Karoline Leach

Karoline Leach

Karoline Leach is a United Kingdom playwright and author, best known for her book In the Shadow of the Dreamchild , which re-examines the life of Lewis Carroll , the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland....
- in a recent issue of Knight Letter, the journal of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America

Lewis Carroll Society of North America

The Lewis Carroll Society of North America is a non-profit organization for the study of the works of Lewis Carroll. It publishes a newsletter, the Knight Letter. Its founder was Stan Marx....
.

In addition to his Carroll books, Gardner has produced “Annotated” editions of Chesterton’s

G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy and detective fiction....
The Innocence Of Father Brown
Father Brown

Father Brown is a fictional character created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton, who stars in 52 short story, later compiled in five books. Chesterton based the character on Father John O'Connor , a priest in Bradford, Yorkshire who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922....
and The Man Who Was Thursday
The Man Who Was Thursday

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare is a novel by G. K. Chesterton, first published in 1908. The book has been referred to as a metaphysical thriller....
as well as of celebrated poems including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the England poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge written in 1797?98 and published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads ....
, Casey at the Bat
Casey at the Bat

"Casey at the Bat", subtitled "A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888", is a baseball poem written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer. First published in the San Francisco Examiner on June 3, 1888, it was later popularized by DeWolf Hopper in many vaudeville performances....
and The Night Before Christmas.

Gardner has occasionally tried his hand at fiction of a kind always closely associated with his non-fictional preoccupations (e.g., Visitors from Oz
Visitors from Oz

Visitors from Oz: The Wild Adventures of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman is an unofficial sequel to the The Oz books. Published in 1998, it was written by Martin Gardner and illustrated by Ted Enik....
, based on L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum was an United States author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker, best known today as the creator, along with illustrator W....
's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's literature novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. It was originally published by the George M....
, and stories about an imaginary numerologist

Numerology

Numerology is any of many systems, traditions or beliefs in a mysticism or esoteric relationship between numbers and physical objects or living things....
named Dr. Matrix

Irving Joshua Matrix

Irving Joshua Matrix , born Irving Joshua Bush and commonly known as Dr. Matrix, was a fictitious polymath scientist, scholar, and entrepreneur who made extraordinary contributions to perpetual motion engineering, Bible code and numerology, pyramid power, pentagon meditation, extra-sensory perception, spoon bending, and a...
). His short stories are collected in The No-Sided Professor and Other Tales of Fantasy, Humor, Mystery, and Philosophy (1987).

He is a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders

Trap Door Spiders

The Trap Door Spiders are a literary male-only eating, drinking, and arguing society in New York City, with a membership historically composed of notable science fiction personalities....
, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov , was a Russian-born United States author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books....
's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers

Black Widowers

The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov, for a series of sixty-six mystery fiction short story, which he wrote starting in 1971....
.

Controversy

In addition to his expository writing about mathematics, Gardner has been an avid controversialist on contemporary issues, arguing for his points of view in a wide range of fields, from general semantics

General Semantics

General Semantics is a non-Aristotelian educational discipline created by Alfred Korzybski during the years 1919 to 1933. General Semantics is distinct from semantics , a different subject....
to fuzzy logic

Fuzzy logic

Fuzzy logic is a form of multi-valued logic derived from fuzzy set theory to deal with reasoning that is approximate rather than precise. In binary sets with binary logic, in contrast to fuzzy logic named also crisp logic, the variables may have a Membership function of only 0 or 1....
to watching TV (he once wrote a negative review of Jerry Mander

Jerry Mander

Jerry Mander is an United States activism and author, best known for his 1977 book, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. His most recent book, The Superferry Chronicles, is about efforts by Hawaiian activists to halt the operation of the Hawaii Superferry....
's book Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television is a book written by Jerry Mander which argues that there are a number of problems with the medium of television....
). Though particularly well known for his critique of pseudo-scientific beliefs, Gardner has also taken sides on political, economic, historical and philosophical controversies. His philosophical views, for example, are described and defended in his book The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener.

Gardner is well known for his sometimes controversial philosophy of mathematics. He wrote negative reviews of The Mathematical Experience
The Mathematical Experience

The Mathematical Experience is a 1981 book by Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh that discusses the practice of modern mathematics from a history of mathematics and philosophy of mathematics perspective....
by Philip J. Davis

Philip J. Davis

For other persons named Philip Davis, see Philip Davis .Philip J. Davis is an United States Applied Mathematics. He was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts....
and Reuben Hersh

Reuben Hersh

Reuben Hersh is an United States mathematician and academic, best known for his writings on the nature, practice, and social impact of mathematics....
and What is mathematics, really? by Hersh, both of which were critical of aspects of mathematical Platonism, and the first of which was well-received by the mathematical community. While Gardner is often perceived as a hard-core Platonist, his reviews demonstrate some formalist tendencies. Gardner maintains that his views are widespread among mathematicians, but Hersh has countered that in his experience as a professional mathematician and speaker, this is not the case.

Works

Books by Martin Gardner

1956 Mathematics, Magic and Mystery Dover
Dover Publications

Dover Publications is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward Cirker and his wife, Blanche. It publishes primarily reissues, books no longer published by their original publishers ? often, but not always, books in the public domain....
; ISBN 0-486-20335-2
1957 Science Puzzlers The Viking Press, Scholastic Book Services
1957 Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science was Martin Gardner's second book, and has become a classic in the literature of entertaining scientific skepticism....
Dover; ISBN 0-486-20394-8
1957 Great Essays in Science (editor); Prometheus Books
Prometheus Books

Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co- founded Committee for Skeptical Inquiry....
(Reprint edition 1994) ISBN 0-87975-853-8
1957 The Wizard of Oz and Who He Was. (with Russel B. Nye) Michigan State University Press. Revised 1994.
1958 Logic Machines and Diagrams. McGraw-Hill New York
1960 The Annotated Alice
The Annotated Alice

The Annotated Alice is a work by Martin Gardner incorporating the text of Lewis Carroll's major tales: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as well as the original illustrations by John Tenniel....
New York: Bramhall House Clarkson Potter. Lib of Congress #60-7341 (no ISBN)
1962 The Annotated Snark New York: Simon & Schuster. (Unabridged Hunting of the snark
The Hunting of the Snark

The Hunting of the Snark is a Literary nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll in 1874, when he was 42 years old. It describes "with infinite humor the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature"....
with introduction and extensive notes from Gardner). 1998 reprint, Penguin Classics; ISBN 0-14-043491-7
1962 Relativity for the Million New York: MacMillan Company (o.p.). Revised and updated 1976 as The Relativity Explosion New York: Vintage Books. Revised and enlarged 1996 as Relativity Simply Explained New York: Dover; ISBN 0-486-29315-7
1964 The Ambidextrous Universe: Mirror Asymmetry and Time-Reversed Worlds (updated 1990, to be re-released with updates June 92005 as The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings: Revised Edition, Dover; ISBN 0-486-44244-6)
1965 The Annotated Ancient Mariner New York: Clarkson Potter, Reprint. Prometheus. ISBN 1-59102-125-1
1967 Annotated Casey at the Bat: A Collection of Ballads about the Mighty Casey New York: Clarkson Potter. Reprint. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. ISBN 0-226-28263-5 Reprint. New York: Dover, 1995. ISBN 0-486-28598-7
1973 The Flight of Peter Fromm, Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc. Prometheus Books; Reprint edition (1994) ISBN 0-87975-911-9
1975 Mathematical Carnival: A New Round-up of Tantalizers and Puzzles from "Scientific American", Knopf Publishing Group; ISBN 0-394-49406-7
1976 The Incredible Dr. Matrix, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons; ISBN 0-684-14669-X
1978 Aha! Insight, W.H. Freeman & Company; ISBN 0-7167-1017-X
1981 Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus, Prometheus Books; ISBN 0-87975-573-3 (paperback), ISBN 0-87975-144-4 (hardback), ISBN 0-380-61754-4 (Avon pocket paperback)
1981 Entertaining Science Experiments With Everyday Objects; Dover; ISBN 0-486-24201-3
1982 Aha! Gotcha: Paradoxes to Puzzle and Delight (Tools for Transformation); W.H. Freeman & Company; ISBN 0-7167-1361-6
1983 The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener, 1999 reprint St. Martin's Griffin; ISBN 0-312-20682-8
1983 Order and Surprise, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-879-75219-X
1984 Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing (Test Your Code Breaking Skills), Dover; ISBN 0-486-24761-9
1985 Magic Numbers of Dr Matrix, Prometheus Books; ISBN 0-87975-282-3
1986 Entertaining Mathematical Puzzles, Dover; ISBN 0-486-25211-6
1987 The No-Sided Professor and other tales of fantasy, humor, mystery, and philosophy, Prometheus Books; ISBN 0-87975-390-0
1987 The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-217748-6 (Notes by Gardner, on G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy and detective fiction....
’s stories).
1987 Riddles of the Sphinx Mathematical Association of American, ISBN 0-88385-632-8 (collection of articles from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine)
1987 Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments, W.H. Freeman & Company; ISBN 0-7167-1925-8
1988 Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers, Dover; ISBN 0-486-25637-5
1988 New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher, Prometheus Books; ISBN 0-87975-432-X (collection of "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" columns)
1990 More Annotated Alice, Random House; ISBN 0-394-58571-2 (a "supplement" to The Annotated Alice
The Annotated Alice

The Annotated Alice is a work by Martin Gardner incorporating the text of Lewis Carroll's major tales: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as well as the original illustrations by John Tenniel....
)
1991 The Unexpected Hanging and Other Mathematical Diversions, University Of Chicago Press; Reprint edition; ISBN 0-226-28256-2
1991 The Annotated Night Before Christmas: A Collection Of Sequels, Parodies, And Imitations Of Clement Moore's Immortal Ballad About Santa Claus Edited, with an introduction and notes, by Martin Gardner, Summit Books (Reprinted, Prometheus Books
Prometheus Books

Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co- founded Committee for Skeptical Inquiry....
, 1995); ISBN 0-671-70839-2
1991 Fractal Music, Hypercards and More; W. H. Freeman
1992 On the Wild Side, Prometheus Books; ISBN 0-87975-713-2 (collection of "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" columns)
1993 The Healing Revelations of Mary Baker Eddy, Prometheus Books,
1994 My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles, Dover; ISBN 0-486-28152-3
1995 Classic Brainteasers, Sterling Publishing; ISBN 0-8069-1261-8
1995 Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery, Prometheus Books; ISBN 0-87975-955-0
1996 Weird Water & Fuzzy Logic: More Notes of a Fringe Watcher, Prometheus Books; ISBN 1-57392-096-7 (collection of "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" columns)
1997 The Night Is Large : Collected Essays, 1938-1995, St. Martin's Griffin; ISBN 0-312-16949-3
1998 Calculus Made Easy, St. Martin's Press; Revised edition ISBN 0-312-18548-0 (Revisions and additions to the 1910 calculus textbook by Silvanus P. Thompson
Silvanus P. Thompson

Silvanus Phillips Thompson Fellow of the Royal Society was a professor of physics at the City and Guilds Technical College in Finsbury, England....
.)
1998 Martin Gardner's Table Magic, Dover; ISBN 0-486-40403-X
1998 Mathematical Recreations: A Collection in Honor of Martin Gardner, Dover; ISBN 0486400891 - This book, edited by David A. Klamer, was the tribute of the mathematical community to Gardner when he retired from writing his Scientific American column in 1981. (The Dover edition is a reprint of the original, titled The Mathematical Gardner, published by Wadsworth.) Discreetly assembled for the occasion, the stature of the mathematicians submitting papers is a testament to Gardner's importance.
1999 Gardner's Whys & Wherefores Prometheus Books; ISBN 1-57392-744-9
1999 The Annotated Alice
The Annotated Alice

The Annotated Alice is a work by Martin Gardner incorporating the text of Lewis Carroll's major tales: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as well as the original illustrations by John Tenniel....
: The Definitive Edition ; W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN 0-393-04847-0
1999 The Annotated Thursday: G. K. Chesterton's Masterpiece, the Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton, Edited by Martin Gardner.
2000 From the Wandering Jew to William F. Buckley, Jr. : On Science, Literature, and Religion, Prometheus Books; ISBN 1-57392-852-6
2000 The Annotated Wizard of Oz, New York: W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN 0-393-04992-2 (introduction)
2001 A Gardner's Workout: Training the Mind and Entertaining the Spirit ISBN 1-56881-120-9
2001 Mathematical Puzzle Tales; Mathematical Association of America ISBN 0-88385-533-X (collection of articles from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine)
2001 Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience, W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN 0-393-32238-6 (collection of "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" columns)
2002 Martin Gardner's Favorite Poetic Parodies Prometheus Books; ISBN 1-57392-925-5
2003 Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries?: Discourses on Gödel, Magic Hexagrams, Little Red Riding Hood, and Other Mathematical and Pseudoscientific Topics, ISBN 0-393-05742-9 (collection of "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" columns and others)
2004 Smart Science Tricks, Sterling; ISBN 1-4027-0910-2
2007 The Jinn from Hyperspace: And Other Scribblings--both Serious and Whimsical, Prometheus Books; ISBN 1-5910-2565-6
2008 Bamboozlers: The Book of Bankable Bar Betchas, Brain Bogglers, Belly Busters & Bewitchery by Diamond Jim Tyler, Diamond Jim Productions; ISBN 0-967-60181-9 (introduction)

(For a downloadable version of The Mathemagician and the Pied Puzzler, another tribute book, see external links below)

Note: Gardner has a number of books on magic written "for the trade

Exposure (magic)

Exposure in magic refers to the practice of making magical methods available to those who are not magicians. It is generally frowned upon as a type of Spoiler that ruins the experience of magical performances for audiences....
", which are not listed here.

Collections of Scientific American columns

Fifteen books together encompass Martin Gardner's columns from Scientific American:

Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions: The First Scientific American Book of Puzzles and Games 1959; University of Chicago Press 1988 ISBN 0-226-28254-6 (originally published as The Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions)
The Second Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions 1961; University of Chicago Press 1987; ISBN 0-226-28253-8
Martin Gardner's New Mathematical Diversions from Scientific American 1966; Simon and Schuster; reprinted by Mathematical Association of America
Mathematical Association of America

The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists; statisticians; and many others in academia, government,...
1995
Numerology of Dr. Matrix 1967; reprinted/expanded as The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix; Prometheus Books; ISBN 0-87975-281-5 / ISBN 0-87975-282-3
Unexpected Hangings, and Other Mathematical Diversions Simon & Schuster 1968; reprinted by University of Chicago Press, 1991 ISBN 0-671-20073-9
The Sixth Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions Simon & Schuster 1971
Mathematical Carnival Vintage 1975; reprinted by Mathematical Association of America
Mathematical Association of America

The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists; statisticians; and many others in academia, government,...
Mathematical Magic Show Vintage 1977; reprinted by Mathematical Association of America
Mathematical Association of America

The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists; statisticians; and many others in academia, government,...
Mathematical Circus Vintage 1979; reprinted by Mathematical Association of America
Mathematical Association of America

The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists; statisticians; and many others in academia, government,...
Wheels, Life, and Other Mathematical Amusements 1983; W. H. Freeman & Co. ISBN 0-7167-1589-9
Knotted Doughnuts and Other Mathematical Entertainments 1986; W. H. Freeman & Co. ISBN 0-7167-1799-9
Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments 1988; W. H. Freeman & Co. ISBN 0-7167-1925-8
Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers 1989; W. H. Freeman & Co. ISBN 0-7167-1987-8; reprinted by Mathematical Association of America
Mathematical Association of America

The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists; statisticians; and many others in academia, government,...
Fractal Music, Hypercards and More 1991; W. H. Freeman
Last Recreations: Hydras, Eggs, and other Mathematical Mystifications 1997; Springer Verlag; ISBN 0-387-94929-1

Three other books collect some or all of Martin Gardner's columns from Scientific American:

The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Problems 2001; W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN 0-393-02023-1 (a "best of" collection)
Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games 2005; Mathematical Association of America
Mathematical Association of America

The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists; statisticians; and many others in academia, government,...
; ISBN 0-88385-545-3 (CD-ROM of all fifteen books above, encompassing all articles in the column)
The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems 2006; W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN 0-393-06114-0

External links

by Kendrick Frazier
Kendrick Frazier

Kendrick Frazier was born in Windsor, Colorado is a science writer and editor. He was the editor of Science News for several years. Since 1977 he has been the editor of Skeptical Inquirer, the journal published by Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal....
for the Skeptical Inquirer
Skeptical Inquirer

The Skeptical Inquirer is a bimonthly, United States magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry with the subtitle: The magazine for science and reason....
(PDF) by Allyn Jackson for the AMS
American Mathematical Society

The American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematics research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians....
Notices
Notices of the American Mathematical Society

Notices of the American Mathematical Society is a membership journal of the American Mathematical Society. It is published monthly except for the combined June/July issue....
by Colm Mulcahy for the MAA
Mathematical Association of America

The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists; statisticians; and many others in academia, government,...
Online website
James Randi
James Randi

James Randi is a Magician and Scientific skepticism best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge,...
's , written in the 1960s
asteroid
Gardner, Martin. , Skeptical Inquirer, July 2000.
, includes

Martin Gardner

Biography

Recreational mathematics

Pseudoscience

Religious and philosophical interests

Literary criticism and fiction

Controversy

Works

Books by Martin Gardner

Collections of Scientific American columns

See also

External links