Martin Gardner American mathematician and science writer Date of Birth: 21.10.1914 Country: USA

1. Biography of Martin Gardner
2. Mathematical Games and Skeptical Inquirer
3. Early Life and Education
4. World War II and Post-War Career
5. Move to New York and Writing Career
6. Later Life and Legacy

Biography of Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner was an American mathematician and scientific writer who specialized in recreational mathematics. However, his interests were much broader - they included micro magic (tricks and illusions with small objects for a small audience), illusionism, literature, with Gardner having a particular preference for the works of Lewis Carroll, philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion.

Mathematical Games and Skeptical Inquirer

From 1956 to 1981, Martin Gardner wrote the column "Mathematical Games" in the oldest American popular science magazine, "Scientific American." From 1983 to 2002, already at a very advanced age, he wrote the column "Notes of a Fringe-Watcher" in the magazine "Skeptical Inquirer." He published over 70 books, with the first one being released in 1952 and the last one in 2009.

Early Life and Education

Martin Gardner, the son of a geologist-oilman, was born on October 21, 1914, in Tulsa, the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma. He grew up in the surrounding area. He studied at the University of Chicago and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy in 1936. After that, Gardner worked as a reporter for the "Tulsa Tribune," an author in the press relations department of the University of Chicago, and an administrator in the black neighborhoods of Chicago.

World War II and Post-War Career

During World War II, Gardner served for several years as a chief on an escort destroyer in the Atlantic Ocean. His ship was still in the Atlantic when the war ended after Japan's surrender. After the war, Gardner returned to the University of Chicago. He studied in graduate school for about a year but did not receive a Master's degree. In 1950, he published an article in the literary journal "Antioch Review" titled "The Hermit Scientist," an innovative work that later became known as pseudoscience. Two years later, he revised and expanded it, publishing it as his first book, "In the Name of Science."

Move to New York and Writing Career

In the early 1950s, Gardner moved to New York City and became the author and designer of the magazine "Humpty Dumpty," aimed at children aged 5 to 7. For eight years, he wrote stories and drew illustrations for "Humpty Dumpty" and several other children's magazines. His puzzles in "Humpty Dumpty" led to more serious work and allowed Gardner to become an author for "Scientific American."

Later Life and Legacy

For several decades, Martin Gardner, his wife Charlotte, and their two sons lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, where Martin built a career as an independent writer, publishing books with multiple publishers and writing hundreds of articles for various magazines and newspapers. In 1979, Martin and Charlotte partially retired and moved to Hendersonville, a small town in North Carolina. Charlotte passed away in 2000. In 2002, Gardner returned to his native Oklahoma and settled in Norman, where his son James Gardner taught and continues to teach at the University of Oklahoma. Martin Gardner passed away on May 22, 2010, at the age of 95. For many years, he almost single-handedly sparked an interest in recreational mathematics in the United States. Interestingly, he struggled with studying mathematical analysis, and after high school, Gardner never studied mathematics again.