Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: The Autobiography of Martin Gardner

Couverture
Princeton University Press, 30 sept. 2013 - 288 pages

The autobiography of the beloved writer who inspired a generation to study math and science

Martin Gardner wrote the Mathematical Games column for Scientific American for twenty-five years and published more than seventy books on topics as diverse as magic, religion, and Alice in Wonderland. Gardner's illuminating autobiography is a candid self-portrait by the man evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould called our "single brightest beacon" for the defense of rationality and good science against mysticism and anti-intellectualism.

Gardner takes readers from his childhood in Oklahoma to his varied and wide-ranging professional pursuits. He shares colorful anecdotes about the many fascinating people he met and mentored, and voices strong opinions on the subjects that matter to him most, from his love of mathematics to his uncompromising stance against pseudoscience. For Gardner, our mathematically structured universe is undiluted hocus-pocus—a marvelous enigma, in other words.

Undiluted Hocus-Pocus offers a rare, intimate look at Gardner’s life and work, and the experiences that shaped both.

 

Table des matières

1 Earliest Memories
1
2 Lee School
10
3 Tulsa Central High I
21
4 Central High II
28
5 Hutchins and Adler
40
6 Richard McKeon
47
7 I Lose My Faith
53
8 Chicago I
62
PHOTO ESSAY
125
14 Esquire and Humpty
125
15 Scientific American
134
16 Pseudoscience
150
17 Math and Magic Friends
160
18 Charlotte
173
19 Bob and Betty
185
20 God
191

9 Chicago II
76
10 I Become a Journalist
88
11 Mother and Dad
98
12 The Navy I
111
13 The Navy II
119
21 My Philosophy
195
My Most Elegant Friend
209
Index
215
Droits d'auteur

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À propos de l'auteur (2013)

Martin Gardner (1914–2010) was an acclaimed popular mathematics and science writer. His numerous books include The Annotated Alice, When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish, and Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science.

Informations bibliographiques