Sunday, October 15, 2006

Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner practically invented the concept of the annotated classic in 1960, with his first Carrollian labor of love, "The Annotated Alice." As versatile as Carroll and now in his 90s, Gardner has written or edited more than 100 books and has been an institution at magazines including Scientific American and Humpty Dumpty's. His "Ambidextrous Universe," about nature's mirror imagery in physics and biology, is a textbook of lucid science writing. With his midcentury collection "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science," he launched the modern skeptical movement. Gardner's many annotated volumes include G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories, Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and even "Casey at the Bat."
Michael Sims. If you're feeling uffish, Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct 2006

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Even more from Gardner on GKC?

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6374576.html?display=current

Publishers Weekly

The Magic of Martin Gardner
by Peter Cannon -- 9/25/2006


"Gardner's focus remains on the earthly task of writing, these days mostly reviews of math and magic books. He regrets that it's a while since he's been asked to review for the New York Review of Books. But he's putting together a new collection of essays on science and literature for Prometheus, The Jinn from Hyperspace, and there are books he has yet to find a publisher for, including a collection of critical essays on G.K. Chesterton. "I'm probably the only non-Catholic who's a Chesterton fan," he says. It's clear that Martin Gardner has enough to keep him busy for a long time."