He certainly influenced me, too, starting with one of the best presents I ever got, too -- the very same book. (But I got it at age 12, in 1959, and was under the impression the book had just come out.) I ate that stuff up. (Actually, I might have taken his 1956 book "Mathematics, Magic, and Mystery" out of the library a few years earlier.) --Dan << Martin Gardner definitely influenced me. One of the best presents that I ever got was in 1957, when I was 10, a friend of the family gave me a copy of the (brand new) book, "Mathematical Puzzles and diversions". I remember constructing all sorts of flexagons, etc. The sheer joy of all these puzzles went a long way to making me choose mathematics as a career.

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_____________________________________________________________________ "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi." --Peter Schickele