The name of Martin Gardner (b. 1914) is well known in Russia. During his long life, he wrote more than 70 books that became popular all over the world, many of them were published in Russian. Gardner is the author of a huge number of articles on mathematics (for 25 years he wrote a column on mathematical games and magic tricks in the journal Scientific America), as well as science fiction stories and essays on a variety of topics. In the collection “When You Were a Fish, a Tadpole - I..." included articles devoted to issues, phenomena or events that especially worried the writer in recent years. And no matter what Martin Gardner talks to his readers about - about science or religion, about Chesterton or Santa Claus, about the sinking of the Titanic or about politics - he demonstrates the deepest intelligence, wisdom and kind, subtle humor.

Copyright © Martin Gardner, 2009Published by arrangement with Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC, New York.