It is 1956 and there is a magazine, Humpty Dumpty with the egg as its chief editor who is assisted by a human editor, Martin Gardner, who prepared activity features and wrote a monthly short story about the adventures of the child egg, Humpty Dumpty Jr. At this point, Mr. Gardner was 42 and had never taken a math course beyond high school. He had struggled with calculus and considered himself poor at solving basic mathematical puzzles. When the publisher of Scientific American asked him if there might be enough material for a monthly column on "recreational mathematics" a term that sounded even more oxymoronic in 1956 than it does today, Mr. Gardner took a gamble.
He quit his job with Humpty Dumpty.
On Wednesday, Mr. Gardner celebrated his 95th birthday with the publication of another book-his second book of essays and mathematical puzzles to be published just his year. With more than 70 books to his name, he is the world's best-known recreational mathematician, and has probably introduced more people to the joys of math than anyone in history.
Gardner was able to collect puzzles and use them. Some like the ferrying the wolf, goat and cabbage were included in a puzzle collection prepared for the emperor Charlemagne 12 centuries ago. The puzzle has been passed down in many forms.
What a wonder that Mr. Gardner found something that he loved to do and is still at it 50 years later.
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