Martin Gardner (1914–2010)
Author of The Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles & Diversions
About the Author
Martin Gardner is the author of more than seventy books on a vast range of topics including "Did Adam & Eve Have Navels?", "Calculus Made Easy", & "The Annotated Alice". He lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina. (Publisher Provided)
Disambiguation Notice:
Martin F. Gardner, the author of Threatened Plants of Central and South Chile, is a different author.
Image credit: Martin Gardner, Mathematician
Series
Works by Martin Gardner
Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries?: Discourses on Godel, Magic Hexagrams, Little Red Riding Hood, and Other… (2003) 201 copies
The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings: Third Revised Edition (1990) 153 copies
The Universe in a Handkerchief: Lewis Carroll's Mathematical Recreations, Games, Puzzles, and Word Plays (1996) 137 copies
When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish: And Other Speculations About This and That (2009) 113 copies
Visitors from Oz: The Wild Adventures of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman (1998) 106 copies
Fractal Music, Hypercards and More...: Mathematical Recreations from Scientific American Magazine (1991) 103 copies
Sphere Packing, Lewis Carroll and Reversi (New Martin Gardner Mathematical Library) (2003) 74 copies
From the Wandering Jew to William F. Buckley, Jr. : On Science, Literature, and Religion (2000) 38 copies
Knots and Borromean Rings, Rep-Tiles, and Eight Queens: Martin Gardner's Unexpected Hanging (The New Martin Gardner… (2014) 23 copies
The numerology of Dr. Matrix;: The fabulous feats and adventures in number theory, sleight of word, and numerological… (1967) 21 copies
A Gathering of Gardner: Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments/Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers and the… (1988) 12 copies
How Not to Test a Psychic: Ten Years of Remarkable Experiments With Renowned Clairvoyant Pavel Stepanek (1989) 8 copies
Impromptu 6 copies
Over the Coffee Cups 4 copies
Thang [short fiction] 4 copies
science puzzlers 4 copies
Show di magia matematica 3 copies
My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles (Math & Logic Puzzles) by Gardner. Martin ( 2003 ) Paperback 3 copies
No-Sided Professor [short fiction] 3 copies
Mental games 3 copies
Martin Gardner Impromptu 2 copies
Oom 2 copies
Confessioni di un medium 2 copies
The Devil And The Trombone 2 copies
Fads & Fallacies In The Name Of Science (Formerly Published Under The Title: In The Name Of Science) 1 copy
As últimas recreações 1 copy
Relativitet for millioner 1 copy
La ciencia 1 copy
Curious Problems & Puzzles 1 copy
DIVERTIMENTOS MATEMÁTICOS 1 copy
Martin Gardneer Presents 1 copy
Математические досуги 1 copy
Science Fiction Puzzle Tales 1 copy
Puzzles Old & New 1 copy
ISAAC ASIMOV´S.- Revista ciencia ficción nº11. Índice: Barry B. Longyear: "La segunda ley",… (1981) 1 copy
Есть идея! 1 copy
Science Fiction Puzzle Tails 1 copy
Che cos' la relativit 1 copy
Cut the Cards 1 copy
Stranger Than Fact Volume II, No. I Summer, 1964 Manifesto of the Institute of General Eclectics 1 copy
VISUAL BRAINSTORMS 2 1 copy
Mit dem Fahrstuhl in die 4. Dimension. Mathematische Rätsel, Paradoxien und neue logische Probleme 1 copy
Children's Digest March 1952 1 copy
Математические новеллы 1 copy
ÄLYNIEKKA 1 copy
4. 1 copy
Paradojas que hacen pensar 1 copy
Мартин Гарднер - 17 книг 1 copy
Associated Works
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass (1865) — Introduction, some editions — 25,710 copies
The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (1989) — Foreword, some editions — 3,160 copies
Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888 (1888) — Introduction, some editions — 1,456 copies
The Annotated Alice: 150th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (150th Deluxe Anniversary Edition) (The Annotated Books) (2015) — Editor — 285 copies
Wordplay: The Philosophy, Art, and Science of Ambigrams (1992) — Foreword, some editions — 240 copies
More Annotated Alice: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass (1990) — Editor — 234 copies
The Country of the Blind and Other Science-Fiction Stories (1997) — Editor, some editions — 220 copies
Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical Ideas That Animate Great Magic Tricks (2011) — Foreword — 150 copies
Counterpoints: 25 Years of The New Criterion on Culture and the Arts (2007) — Contributor — 47 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 8, No. 1 [January 1984] (1984) — Contributor — 18 copies
Beware familiar spirits (The Scribner library ; 860) (1938) — Introduction, some editions — 18 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 2, No. 2 [March-April 1978] (1978) — Contributor — 16 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 6, No. 8 [August 1982] (1982) — Contributor — 16 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 10, No. 10 [October 1986] (1986) — Contributor — 14 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 9, No. 10 [October 1985] (1985) — Contributor — 14 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 9, No. 12 [December 1985] (1905) — Contributor — 13 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 9, No. 1 [January 1985] (1985) — Contributor — 13 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 7, No. 11 [November 1983] (1979) — Contributor — 12 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 7, No. 4 [April 1983] (1983) — Contributor — 12 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 7, No. 2 [February 1983] (1983) — Contributor — 11 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 10, No. 8 [August 1986] (1986) — Contributor — 11 copies
Science Fiction Omnibus: The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1949, 1950 (1952) — Contributor — 11 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 9, No. 3 [March 1985] (1985) — Contributor — 11 copies
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: Vol. 6, No. 2 [February 1982] (1982) — Contributor — 10 copies
Kalki : Studies in James Branch Cabell — Contributor, some editions — 1 copy
Humpty Dumpty's Magazine for Little Children #243, December 1976 — Contributor — 1 copy
The American book collector — Contributor, some editions — 1 copy
Mr. Belloc Objects and Still Objects to "The Outline of History" (2008) — Introduction, some editions — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Gardner, Martin
- Birthdate
- 1914-10-21
- Date of death
- 2010-05-22
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
- Place of death
- Norman, Oklahoma, USA
- Places of residence
- Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA
New York, New York, USA
Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, USA - Education
- University of Chicago (B.A. | Philosophy | 1936)
- Occupations
- science writer
author
mathematician - Relationships
- Gardner, James (son)
- Organizations
- CSICOP: Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
Humpty Dumpty
Scientific American
Skeptical Inquirer
United States Navy (WWII) - Awards and honors
- American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1997)
George Pólya Award (2000)
Trevor Evans Award (1998)
Carl B. Allendoerfer Award (1990)
Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition (1987)
L. Frank Baum Memorial Award (1971) - Short biography
- Martin Gardner was born on October 21 1914 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of a geologist who started a small oil business and became a wildcatter. As a child Martin enjoyed magic tricks and playing chess. After graduating from high school in 1932, he earned a bachelor's degree in Philosophy at the University of Chicago, having also studied history, literature and the sciences under the intellectually-stimulating Great Books curriculum.
Although brought up a devout Methodist, he lost his Christian faith as a result of his wide reading, a transition he covered in a semi-autobiographical novel The Flight of Peter Fromm (1973).
In 1937 Gardner returned to Oklahoma, taking a reporter's job on the Tulsa Tribune, and after a spell in public relations back at the University of Chicago, in 1942 joined the US Naval Reserve as a yeoman in the destroyer escort USS Pope. On night watch, he dreamed up plots for stories, which he sold to Esquire magazine. After the war he became a freelance writer, and in the 1950s wrote features for Humpty Dumpty's Magazine and other children's periodicals.
In 1956 he sold an article to Scientific American magazine and followed this up with an essay about hexaflexagons – hexagons made from strips of paper that show different faces when flexed in different ways. This so impressed the publisher that Gardner was invited to produce a regular column along similar lines. Since he had not studied mathematics after high school, Gardner plundered second-hand bookshops in Manhattan to find enough material to sustain his "Mathematical Games" column. In the event it ran for 25 years and earned Gardner the American Mathematical Society's prize for mathematical exposition.
His lack of scholarly expertise meant that instead of relying on academic jargon, Gardner packed his prose with cross-cultural references, jokes and anecdotes, giving the column the broadest-possible appeal. He introduced his readers to riddles, paradoxes, enigmas and even magic tricks, as well as concepts such as fractals and Chinese tangram puzzles, redefining the concept of "recreational mathematics".
Gardner also became known as a sceptic of the paranormal, and wrote works debunking public figures such as the psychic Uri Geller, who gained fame for claiming to bend spoons with his mind. In his first book Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (1952), Gardner exposed such quackery as flat-earth cults, alien abductions and a belief in UFOs. The book has since become a classic; the novelist Kingsley Amis, an early fan, regretted not stealing a copy when he had had the chance.
In 1976, with Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov and others, Gardner co-founded the Committee for the Scientific Evaluation of Claims of the Paranormal, and wrote regularly for its magazine, the Skeptical Inquirer. Its most recent issue includes a feature he wrote on Oprah Winfrey's New Age interests.
In more than 70 books, Gardner produced lay guides to Einstein's Theory of Relativity; ambidexterity and physical symmetry; the bath plug vortex (the phenomenon by which bathwater in the northern hemisphere drains in an anticlockwise direction and clockwise in the southern hemisphere); and even the concept of God. He also published fiction, poetry and literary and film criticism as well as puzzle books.
In The Numerology of Dr Matrix (1967) Gardner investigated links between numerals and the occult, asking (for example) what is special about the number 8,549,176,320? (A: It is the 10 natural integers arranged in the order of the English alphabet.)
His many admirers instituted a regular convention of Gardner followers, known as "Gatherings for Gardner" (G4G), which attracted magicians, puzzle fans and mathematicians from all over the world.
Although Gardner attended these as guest of honour, as a matter of course he avoided conferences, meetings and parties, and despite his facility as a polymath never owned a computer or used email. He preferred to work standing up, and, while magic and conjuring tricks remained his principal hobby, was also an accomplished exponent of the musical saw.
Martin Gardner married, in 1952, Charlotte Greenwald, who predeceased him in 2000. Their two sons survive him.
(The Telegraph: Martin Gardner, 7:14PM BST 25 May 2010) - Disambiguation notice
- Martin F. Gardner, the author of Threatened Plants of Central and South Chile, is a different author.
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Statistics
- Works
- 242
- Also by
- 85
- Members
- 14,291
- Popularity
- #1,610
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 136
- ISBNs
- 462
- Languages
- 15
- Favorited
- 48
I've adored Martin Gardner since I first picked up "The Annotated Alice", and he was a one-of-a-kind historian, raconteur, critic, and general pioneer of common sense and rational thinking. I was also amazed, given he was very old at the time of writing this book, to think that he had it in him.
Instead, what I soon learned was that this book was clearly put together from essays, reviews, articles, and other miscellanea previously written. Which is fine, in and of itself. Malcolm Gladwell does the same thing. However in this case, most of these articles just don't work in this context.
Take, for instance, his chapter on the possibilities of extinction by meteor -- it falls off into a film critique of two Hollywood blockbusters! And not even a critique of the science, just of his dislike for the films in general! These may have worked in a weekly newspaper column or some such, but don't have the coherence and sting to be a major chapter in a book. By a similar notion, some of the articles that debunk or analyse heavy physics do so without providing enough information to the layman. Evidently they were first written for scientific magazines that catered to a more niche crowd.
Some chapters, even worse, don't "debunk" at all, as the title claims. Gardner just explains the issue at heart, and then maybe gives a brief precis of why people do it. His chapter on cult suicides is admittedly a tough example, since explaining that kind of situation is a complex debate. However, Gardner neither explains nor debunks. He effectively just recounts what happens, without looking at the science or psychology of cult worship and leadership, nor really debunking (beyond the obvious "it's ridiculous) the theories those people held.
I won't hold this against the memory of the late Mr. Gardner, since he was a remarkable man. But this book shouldn't have seen the light of day.… (more)