The crafty creator of mathematical puzzles, Martin Gardner, will celebrate his 95th birthday tomorrow. For many years, he ran a column in Scientific American magazine on recreational mathematics, but he retired from that post some years ago. Retiring and quitting are different things, and Gardner most definitely did not quit. He’s the author or editor of over 70 books, and publishers know that he is “box office” in that almost anything with his name on it will enjoy healthy sales. His undergraduate training was in philosophy, and he never considered himself a very good mathematician, but he wrestled with the ideas behind the puzzles he selected for publication in his SA column and in the numerous collections which appeared under his editorship. So, once he had the ideas clearly stated in his own mind, he could write about them for other people with insight and force.
Gardner was a fierce defender of science against nutsos, pseudos and fadists of all kinds. He had his facts in order and could punch, hard. I read Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science almost in one sitting. But he also has a whimsical side, as shown by his Annotated Alice in Wonderland, The Annotated Wizard of Oz and others. But, his mathematical puzzle collections form the bulk of his oeuvre, and are the basis of his reputation as an effective popularizer of difficult concepts. So, let’s hoist a cold one for Mr. G on his 95th. He’s still works, every day on his old style typewriter and still publishes. He’s an American original.