Martin Gardner was first asked in 1956 by the publisher of Scientific American if there might be enough material for a monthly column on “recreational mathematics”. That led to his monthly “Mathematical Games” column, which Gardner, an amateur mathematician who actually majored in philosophy, wrote for the next quarter-century.

This week, Gardner will celebrate his 95th birthday with the publication of another book—his second book of essays and mathematical puzzles to be published just this year, titled When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish. 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.

How is this possible? Actually, there are two separate puzzles here. One is how Gardner, who still works every day at his old typewriter, has managed for so long to confound and entertain his readers. The other is why so many of us have never been able to resist this kind of puzzle. Why, when we hear about the guy trying to ferry a wolf and a goat and a head of cabbage across the river in a small boat, do we feel compelled to solve his transportation problem?

It never occurred to me that math could be fun until the day in grade school that my father gave me a book of 19th-century puzzles assembled by Gardner—the same puzzles, as it happened, that Gardner’s father had used to hook him during his school days. The algebra and geometry were sugar-coated with elaborate stories and illustrations.

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