The man who loved only numbers

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Paul Erdős, the most prolific arid eccentric
mathematician of our time, forsook all creature
comforts-including a home-to pursue his life-
long study of numbers. He was a man who pos-
sessed unimaginable powers of thought yet was
unable to manage some of the simplest daily
tasks.
For more than six decades, Erdős lived out
of two tattered suitcases, crisscrossing four con-
tinents at a frenzied pace, chasing mathemati-
cal problems and fresh talent. He gave his love
to numbers—and they returned in kind, "reveal-
ing their secrets to him as they did to no other
mathematician of this century" (Life magazine).
Erdős saw mathematics as a search for lasting
beauty and ultimate truth. It was a search Erdős
never abandoned, even as his life was torn
asunder by some of the major political dramas
of our time.
In this brilliantly inventive and playful biog-
raphy, Hoffman uses Erdős's life and work to
introduce readers to a cast of remarkable... Tovább

Fülszöveg

FFT $22.95
Canada $30.95
Paul Erdős, the most prolific arid eccentric
mathematician of our time, forsook all creature
comforts-including a home-to pursue his life-
long study of numbers. He was a man who pos-
sessed unimaginable powers of thought yet was
unable to manage some of the simplest daily
tasks.
For more than six decades, Erdős lived out
of two tattered suitcases, crisscrossing four con-
tinents at a frenzied pace, chasing mathemati-
cal problems and fresh talent. He gave his love
to numbers—and they returned in kind, "reveal-
ing their secrets to him as they did to no other
mathematician of this century" (Life magazine).
Erdős saw mathematics as a search for lasting
beauty and ultimate truth. It was a search Erdős
never abandoned, even as his life was torn
asunder by some of the major political dramas
of our time.
In this brilliantly inventive and playful biog-
raphy, Hoffman uses Erdős's life and work to
introduce readers to a cast of remarkable
geniuses, from Archimedes to Stanislaw Ulam,
one of the chief minds behind the Los Alamos
nuclear project. He draws on years of interviews
with Ronald Graham and Fan Chung, Erdős's
chief American caretakers and devoted collabo-
rators. With an eye for the hilarious anecdote,
Hoffman explains mathematical problems from
Fermat's Last Theorem to the more frivolous
"Monty Hall dilemma." What emerges is an inti-
mate look at the world of mathematics and an
indelible portrait of Erdős, a charming and imp-
ish philosopher-scientist whose accomplish-
ments continue to enrich and inform our world.
(continued on back flap)
(continued from front flap)
Paul Hoffman first met Erdos in 1986 and
interviewed him over the last ten years of his
life, even following him on his mathematical
sojourns. Hoffman's 1987 profile of Erdos in
The Atlantic Monthly won the National
Magazine Award for feature writing, the most
prestigious award in American magazine pub-
lishing. In their citation the judges proclaimed
it, "A minor classic written with amazing clari-
ty and wit."
Paul Hoffman is the publisher
of Encyclopaedia Britannica.
He is the host of the five-part
PBS series "Great Minds of
Science" and a frequent corre-
spondent on television shows
such as CBS This Morning and
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Eor ten years,
Hoffman was the president and editor-in-chief
of Discover magazine. He is the author of ten
books, including Archimedes' Revenge. He lives
in Chicago, Illinois, and Woodstock, New York. Vissza