Martin Gardner

**Martin Gardner** (October 21, 1914 – May 22, 2010) was an American writer.

## Overview

**Martin Gardner** had many interests and wrote about many topics. He wrote about mathematics, magic, literature, philosophy, skepticism, and religion. He wrote the "Mathematical Games" column in the _Scientific American_ magazine from 1956 to 1981.  After that, he wrote the "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" column in the _Skeptical Inquirer_ magazine.

## Authorship

Gardner published over 70 books. He wrote under numerous pen names.  As "Uriah Fuller" he wrote _Confessions of a Psychic_.  As "George Groth", he criticized his book, _The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener_.

## Works

- List of Martin Gardner Mathematical Games columns

### Books

- 1952 _In the Name of Science_ G. P. Putnam's Sons
- 1956 _Mathematics, Magic and Mystery_ Dover;
- 1957 _Science Puzzlers_ The Viking Press, Scholastic Book Services
- 1957 _Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science_ Dover;  (expansion of _In the Name of Science_)
- 1957 _Great Essays in Science_ (editor); Prometheus Books (Reprint edition 1994)
- 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_ 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_ with introduction and _extensive_ notes from Gardner). 1998 reprint, Penguin Classics;
- 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;
- 1964 _The Ambidextrous Universe: Mirror Asymmetry and Time-Reversed Worlds_ (Revised ed., 1990 as _The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings_; 3rd ed., 2005, Dover; )
- 1965 _The Annotated Ancient Mariner_ New York: Clarkson Potter, Reprint. Prometheus.
- 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.  Reprint. New York: Dover, 1995.
- 1973 _The Flight of Peter Fromm_, Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc. Prometheus Books; Reprint edition (1994)
- 1975 _Mathematical Carnival: A New Round-up of Tantalizers and Puzzles from "Scientific American"_, Knopf Publishing Group;
- 1976 _The Incredible Dr. Matrix_, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons;
- 1978 _Aha! Insight_, W.H. Freeman & Company;
- 1981 _Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus_, Prometheus Books;  (paperback),  (hardback),  (Avon pocket paperback)
- 1981 _Entertaining Science Experiments With Everyday Objects_; Dover;
- 1982 _Aha! Gotcha: Paradoxes to Puzzle and Delight_ (Tools for Transformation); W.H. Freeman & Company;
- 1983 _The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener_, 1999 reprint St. Martin's Griffin;
- 1983 _Order and Surprise_, Prometheus Books,
- 1984 _Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing (Test Your Code Breaking Skills)_, Dover;
- 1985 _Magic Numbers of Dr Matrix_, Prometheus Books;
- 1986 _Entertaining Mathematical Puzzles_, Dover;
- 1987 _The No-Sided Professor and other tales of fantasy, humor, mystery, and philosophy_, Prometheus Books;
- 1987 _The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown_ Oxford University Press,  (Notes by Gardner, on G. K. Chesterton’s stories).
- 1987 _Riddles of the Sphinx_ Mathematical Association of American,  (collection of articles from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine)
- 1987 _Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments_, W.H. Freeman & Company;
- 1988 _Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers_, Dover;
- 1988 _New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher_, Prometheus Books;  (collection of "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" columns)
- 1990 _More Annotated Alice_, Random House;  (a "supplement" to _The Annotated Alice_)
- 1991 _The Unexpected Hanging and Other Mathematical Diversions_, University Of Chicago Press; Reprint edition;
- 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, 1995);
- 1991 _Fractal Music, Hypercards and More_; W. H. Freeman
- 1992 _On the Wild Side_, Prometheus Books;  (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;
- 1995 _Classic Brainteasers_, Sterling Publishing;
- 1995 _Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery_, Prometheus Books;
- 1996 _Weird Water & Fuzzy Logic: More Notes of a Fringe Watcher_, Prometheus Books;  (collection of "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" columns)
- 1997 _The Night Is Large : Collected Essays, 1938-1995_, St. Martin's Griffin;
- 1998 _Calculus Made Easy_, St. Martin's Press; Revised edition  (Revisions and additions to the 1910 calculus textbook by Silvanus P. Thompson.)
- 1998 _Martin Gardner's Table Magic_, Dover;
- 1998 _Mathematical Recreations: A Collection in Honor of Martin Gardner_, edited by David A. Klamer, Dover;
- 1999 _Gardner's Whys & Wherefores_ Prometheus Books;
- 1999 _The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition_ ; W.W. Norton & Company;
- 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;
- 2000 _The Annotated Wizard of Oz_, New York: W.W. Norton & Company;  (introduction)
- 2001 _A Gardner's Workout: Training the Mind and Entertaining the Spirit_
- 2001 _Mathematical Puzzle Tales_; Mathematical Association of America  (collection of articles from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine)
- 2001 _Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience_, W.W. Norton & Company;  (collection of "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" columns)
- 2002 _Martin Gardner's Favorite Poetic Parodies_ Prometheus Books;
- 2003 _Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries?: Discourses on Gödel, Magic Hexagrams, Little Red Riding Hood, and Other Mathematical and Pseudoscientific Topics_,  (collection of "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" columns and others)
- 2004 _Smart Science Tricks_, Sterling;
- 2007 _The Jinn from Hyperspace: And Other Scribblings—both Serious and Whimsical_, Prometheus Books;
- 2008 _Bamboozlers: The Book of Bankable Bar Betchas, Brain Bogglers, Belly Busters & Bewitchery by Diamond Jim Tyler_, Diamond Jim Productions;  (introduction)
- 2009 _When You Were a Tadpole and I was a Fish and other Speculations about This and That_, Hill and Wang;
- 2009 _The Upside-Down World of Gustave Verbeek_, Sunday Press Books;  (introduction)
- (For a downloadable version of _The Mathemagician and the Pied Puzzler_, another tribute book, see other websites below)

Note: Gardner also wrote some books on magic for professional magicians. These books are not listed here.

### Collected _Scientific American_ columns

Martin Gardner's columns from _Scientific American_ are printed in 15 books. Don Knuth calls these books "the Canon".
- _Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions: The First Scientific American Book of Puzzles and Games_ 1959; University of Chicago Press 1988  (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;
- _Martin Gardner's New Mathematical Diversions from Scientific American_ 1966; Simon and Schuster; reprinted by Mathematical Association of America 1995
- _Numerology of Dr. Matrix_ 1967; reprinted/expanded as _The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix_; Prometheus Books;  /
- _Unexpected Hangings, and Other Mathematical Diversions_ Simon & Schuster 1968; reprinted by University of Chicago Press, 1991
- _The Sixth Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions_ Simon & Schuster 1971
- _Mathematical Carnival_ Vintage 1975; reprinted by Mathematical Association of America
- _Mathematical Magic Show_ Vintage 1977; reprinted by Mathematical Association of America
- _Mathematical Circus_ Vintage 1979; reprinted by Mathematical Association of America
- _Wheels, Life, and Other Mathematical Amusements_ 1983; W. H. Freeman & Co.
- _Knotted Doughnuts and Other Mathematical Entertainments_ 1986; W. H. Freeman & Co.
- _Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments_ 1988; W. H. Freeman & Co.
- _Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers_ 1989; W. H. Freeman & Co. ; reprinted by Mathematical Association of America
- _Fractal Music, Hypercards and More_ 1991; W. H. Freeman
- _Last Recreations: Hydras, Eggs, and other Mathematical Mystifications_ 1997; Springer Verlag;

Three other books print 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;  (a "best of" collection)
- _Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games_ 2005; Mathematical Association of America;  (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;

### Interviews

- 1979 interview with Gardner by Anthony Barcellos for the College Mathematics Journal
- 1998 interview with Gardner  by Kendrick Frazier for the Skeptical Inquirer
- 2004 interview with Gardner  (PDF) by Allyn Jackson for the AMS _Notices_
- The Martin Gardner Interview (2005) - Cambridge University Press blog - Part 1
- The Martin Gardner Interview (2005) - Cambridge University Press blog - Part 2
- The Martin Gardner Interview (2005) - Cambridge University Press blog - Part 3
- The Martin Gardner Interview (2005) - Cambridge University Press blog - Part 4
- The Martin Gardner Interview (2005) - Cambridge University Press blog - Part 5
- 2006 interview with Gardner  by Colm Mulcahy for the MAA Online website

### Tributes

- James Randi's notes on Gardner, written in the 1960s
- A short Martin Gardner Bio
- About Gathering for Gardner
- (2587) Gardner asteroid
- On-line Gardner bibliography
- Gardner, Martin. "David Bohm and J. Krishnamurti" , _Skeptical Inquirer,_ July 2000.
- Gathering for Gardner conference site , G4G, includes downloadable Gardner tribute e-book (The Mathemagician and Pied Puzzler)

### Obituaries

- A tribute to Martin Gardner, London Times, 05/24/2010
- Martin Gardner, 95, a journalist, provided in-depth analysis of Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat (Washington Post obituary, May 24, 2010)
- Martin, Douglas, “Martin Gardner, Puzzler and Polymath, Dies at 95” ; _New York Times_, May 23, 2010.

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Martin Gardner
- **image**: Martin Gardner.jpeg
- **birth place**: Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
- **death place**: Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.
- **nationality**: American
- **known for**: Puzzles, popular mathematics, stage magic, debunking
- **education**: Bachelor of Arts, BA, University of Chicago
1 yr graduate classes (Philosophy; Univ of Chicago)
- **occupation**: Author
- **spouse**: Charlotte Greenwald (m. 1952)
- **children**: 2