A Bouquet for the Gardener: Martin Gardner Remembered
"Martin Gardner, the "Mathematical Games" columnist for Scientific American from 1956 to 1981, was also a philosopher, polymath, magician, religious thinker, and the author of more than 70 books, including The Annotated Alice, The Ambidextrous Universe, and Visitors from Oz. Here his life and works are celebrated in a bouquet of essays about him or in his honor. Introduced by his son Jim, the book includes reminiscences by Douglas Hofstadter, Morton N. Cohen, Scott Kim, David Singmaster, Michael Patrick Hearn, and many others; a festschrift contains essays by such writers as Raymond Smullyan and Robin Wilson. This volume also contains the final annotations Gardner made to the Alice books post-"Definitive Edition," and a definitive bibliography of his Carroll-related writings. While put together under the aegis of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, it takes a far broader look at this remarkable man and his many interests and accomplishments."
Mark Burstein (editor)
Martin Gardner, Puzzler and Polymath,
Dies at 95
By Douglas Martin
Published: May 23, 2010
By Douglas Martin
Published: May 23, 2010
The New York Times
(not from this book)
" (...) Mr. Gardner also wrote fiction, poetry, literary and film criticism, as well as puzzle books. He was a leading voice in refuting pseudoscientific theories, from ESP to flying saucers. He was so prolific and wide-ranging in his interests that critics speculated that there just had to be more than one of him.
His mathematical writings intrigued a generation of mathematicians, but he never took a college math course. If it seemed the only thing this polymath could not do was play music on a saw, rest assured that he could, and quite well.
“Martin Gardner is one of the great intellects produced in this country in the 20th century,” said Douglas Hofstadter, the cognitive scientist. (...)
" (...) Mr. Gardner also wrote fiction, poetry, literary and film criticism, as well as puzzle books. He was a leading voice in refuting pseudoscientific theories, from ESP to flying saucers. He was so prolific and wide-ranging in his interests that critics speculated that there just had to be more than one of him.
His mathematical writings intrigued a generation of mathematicians, but he never took a college math course. If it seemed the only thing this polymath could not do was play music on a saw, rest assured that he could, and quite well.
“Martin Gardner is one of the great intellects produced in this country in the 20th century,” said Douglas Hofstadter, the cognitive scientist. (...)
Table of Contents
Foreword, by Jim Gardner
Introduction, by Mark Burstein
I. In Memoriam
Martin Gardner and the Grown-Ups, by Will Brooker
My Pen Pal, Martin Gardner, by Angelica Carpenter
Martin Gardner: Ave Atque Vale, by Morton N. Cohen
Martin Gardner, an Appreciation, by Selwyn Goodacre
Perhaps a Few Wise Words: A Tribute to Gartin Mardner, by Edward Guiliano
The Annotated Martin Gardner, by Peter Hanff
Dr. Matrix in Oz, by Michael Patrick Hearn
Martin Gardner, Major Shaping Force in My Life, by Douglas Hofstadter
The Stanford Papers, by Stanley S. Isaacs
Martin Gardner: Through the Looking-Glass, by Scott Kim
Martin Gardner and Annotation, by Jim Kincaid
All in a Golden Afternoon, by Charlie Lovett
Gardner in Japan, by Yoshiyuki Momma
Martin Gardner and Lewis Carroll: The Magical Connection, by Christopher Morgan
Gardner in the U.K., by Mark Richards
Memories of Martin, by David Schaefer
Martin Gardner: A Personal Reminiscence, by Justin Schiller
A Remembrance of a Gracious Carrollian, by Byron Sewell
Annotations of Immortality, by Brian Sibley
In the Garden of the Snark, by Mahendra Singh
Reminiscences, by David Singmaster
A Day in Norman, by Alan Tannenbaum
My Correspondence with Martin Gardner, by Edward Wakeling
Editing Martin, by Bob Weil
II. From the Knight Letter
Well, You Know, by Martin Gardner
The Final Annotations, by Martin Gardner
III. Festschrift
A Triad of Mathematics Popularizers: Martin Gardner, Richard Proctor, and Charles Dodgson,by Fran Abeles
One More Class: Martin Gardner and Logic Diagrams, by Amirouche Moktefi and A. W. F. Edwards
Probability Paradoxes, by Eugene Seneta
Four Puzzles for Martin, by Raymond Smullyan
Charles Dodgson’s Geometry, by Robin Wilson
IV. Reference
A Carrollian Bibliography, by August A. Imholtz, Jr.
Tradução de Maria Luiza de X. Borges.
Introdução e notas de Martin Gardner.
Ilustrações originais de John Tenniel (Inglaterra).
"In addition to its clarifying references in Victorian England when the Alice books were written, it is interesting to observe the number of notes in Annotated Alice that link Alice to the twentieth century: James Joyce, philosophy of language, and virtual reality are some examples. Gardner shows Alice as hypertext, cross-referencing several different areas of knowledge. The text breaks out of its frames and makes conversation with other writings and historical contexts, which open up new possibilities to ways of reading the text. Alice reveals a maze. To read it is to travel along different paths." Adriana Peliano
Penso que além trazer a tona as referências da Inglaterra Vitoriana quando os livros de Alice foram escritos, é interessante perceber o número de notas em "Alice comentada" que apontam conexões de Alice com o século XX. James Joyce, filosofia da linguagem, realidade virtual, universo em expansão são alguns exemplos. Gardner mostra Alice como um grande hipertexto, cruzado por múltiplas referências em diferentes áreas do conhecimento. O texto atravessa suas molduras e conversa com outros textos e o contexto histórico, que ao se transformar, abre novas possibilidades de leitura. Alice revela um labirinto. Ler é percorrer diferentes caminhos.
