As a young man, Paul Hoffman was a brilliant chess player . . . until the pressures of competition drove him to the brink of madness.In King's Gambit, he interweaves a gripping overview of the history of the game and an in-depth look at the state of moder
Based on a National Magazine Award-winning article, this masterful biography of Hungarian-born Paul Erdos is both a vivid portrait of an eccentric genius and a layman's guide to some of this century's most startling mathematical discoveries.
On the eve of the centennial of the Wright brothers' historic flights at Kitty Hawk, a new generation will learn about the other man who was once hailed worldwide as the conqueror of the air--Alberto Santos-Dumont. Because the Wright brothers worked in se
Syndicated columnist Paul Hoffman provides an acclaimed account of the world of modern mathematicians in the bestselling tradition of accessible scientists Stephen Jay Gould and Tracey Kidder. An extremely clever account.--The New Yorker.
From the archives of the world's most famous newspaper comes a collection of its very best writing on mathematics. Big and informative, "The New York Times Book of Mathematics" gathers more than 110 articles written from 1892 to 2010 that cover statistics