24/05/2010
Martin Gardner, champion of recreational mathematics, died on Saturday the 22nd of May, aged 95. Gardner delved into recreational maths in the 1950s when he started writing his Mathematical games column for the Scientific American, which he kept up for 25 years. Many books resulted from his passion for mathematical puzzles and brainteasers, but he also wrote extensively on other subjects, producing annotated versions of Alice in wonderland and Through the lookinglass, debunkings of pseudoscientific myths, religion, and also tried his hand at fiction. He'll be sadly missed by puzzlers around the world.

Some of Gardner's books, and books inspired by him, have been reviewed on Plus:

• Mathematics, Magic and Mystery
• Origami, Eleusis and the Soma Cube
• A lifetime of puzzles, Homage to a pied puzzler and Mathematical wizardry for a Gardner
• Tribute to a mathemagician.