Martin Gardner (1914-2010)
As a young magician just starting out I remember buying Mathematics, Magic and Mystery from the local bookstore only to quickly learn every trick within days. The effects and puzzles within are extremely easy yet impossibly effective. Apart from this book, I know very little about Martin Gardner, other than what’s on Wikipedia.
Several years ago a good friend loaned Dave and I his copy of The Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic, another book by Martin Gardner which is now long out of print. For nearly 12 hours we went through every page – all 600 – thoroughly marking it up with yellow sticky notes. We look forward to the refined edition of this book with commentaries by Michael Weber to arrive later this year.
The video above is titled “The Nature of things” and gives a nice profile of Martin Gardner with long time friend and magician/mathematician, Persi Diaconis.
The New York Times just posted a nice article on Martin Gardner, “…one of the great intellects produced in this country in the 20th century.” Read Full Article