Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Martin Gardner more or less singlehandedly sustained and nurtured interest in recreational mathematics for most of the 20th century. His interests are wide, ranging from science and philosophy to magic and the skeptical movement associated with James Randi. He lives in Norman, Oklahoma.

Occasional conferences of people sharing his interests, known as the Gatherings for Gardner, are held in his honour. The first was held in 1993.

In his column, he introduced many subjects to a wider audience, including:-

• Flexagons
• John Conway's Game of Life
• Polyominoes
• The Soma cube
• The board game "Nash", also called "Hex" and sometimes called "John", independently created by Piet Hein and John Forbes Nash
• Tangrams
• Penrose tiling
• cryptoanalysis/trapdoor ciphers
• many others... please add them here...

There is an asteroid named in honor of Martin Gardner (2587) Gardner.

Table of contents

1 Selected works 1.1 Books 1.2 Collections of columns from Scientific American magazine 2 See also 3 External links

Selected works

Books

• Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (1957; Dover; ISBN 0486203948)
• Mathematical Games
• The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Problems (2001; W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN 0393020231)
• The Ambidextrous Universe: Mirror Asymmetry and Time-Reversed Worlds
• ''The Annotated Alice
• The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener 1983,1999 ISBN 0312206828
• Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus 1990 ISBN 8797557330
• A Gardner's Workout: Training the Mind and Entertaining the Spirit 2001 ISBN 1568811209
• Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries?: Discourses on Godel, Magic Hexagrams, Little Red Riding Hood, and Other Mathematical and Pseudoscientific Topics 2003 ISBN 0393057429

• Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions: The First Scientific American Book of Puzzles and Games (1959,1988; University of Chicago Press ISBN 0226282546)
• Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions (1959; Pelican, UK ISBN 0140207139)
• More Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions (1961; Pelican, UK ISBN 0140207481)
• Further Mathematical Diversions (1969; Pelican, UK ISBN 014021996X)
• Mathematical Carnival (1975; Pelican, UK ISBN 0140220410)
• Mathematical Circus (1979; Pelican, UK ISBN 014022355X)
• 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)
• The Last Recreations around 1996??
• many others... please add them here...

• Piet Hein
• Douglas Hofstadter
• Hollow Earth