Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: The Autobiography of Martin Gardner

(Hardback)

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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.

Reviews

"Readers who only know Gardner for his math and science writing will be surprised at his focus on religion, and this autobiography demonstrates his passion to explain and understand the world around him."--Publishers Weekly "For half a century, Martin Gardner (1914-2010) was an international scientific treasure... Gardner's passion for writing and his warmth and humour shine forth on every page of this book, making it a memoir of a great human being ..."--David Singmaster, Nature "The style is that of a memoir, conversationally phrased, and not afraid to be sidetracked occasionally by an amusing aside. Gardner paints vividly an inside picture of American intellectual life in the twentieth century, coloured by honest accounts of the many influential figures with whom he came into contact."--Alexander Shannon, Plus magazine "His illuminating autobiography, Undiluted Hocus-Pocus ... offers a rare, intimate look at Gardner's life and work."--Mother Nature Network "In summary, I give this book the highest praise that I can possibly give an autobiography: it was much too short."--Charles Ashbacher, MAA Reviews

Author Bio

Martin Gardner (1914-2010) was an acclaimed popular mathematics and science writer whose broad interests encompassed such subjects as philosophy, religion, stage magic, and the writings of Lewis Carroll and G. K. Chesterton. His numerous books include "The Annotated Alice", "When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish: And Other Speculations about This and That", and "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science".