A Martin Gardner bibliography

Martin Gardner was an incredibly prolific journalist and essayist with eclectic interests. His work inspired many readers to discover new interests of their own. I collect his books and am trying to produce a complete list of them.

I'm very sorry to report that Mr. Gardner died on May 22, 2010. His obituary appears in the New York Times; a video profile is linked from Boing Boing.

Titles that I have are underlined. If anyone wants any bibliographic data, contents, or other research in the Gardner titles in my possession, please ask.

Please help me improve this bibliography, by sending notes, corrections, fuller titles, other data, and especially names of more books by Gardner.

I haven't tried to catalogue articles by Gardner; that would be a huge undertaking! Many of Gardner's regular columns (in Scientific American and in the Skeptical Inquirer) have been reproduced in book-length collections. There is a useful subject index to the collections of Gardner's Scientific American columns maintained by Carl W. Lee and Charles Kluepfel. (Does anyone know whether the Colossal Book of Mathematics, published in 2001, collects any columns that didn't previously appear in book form?)

I received some help from Dr. Dana Richards, Maurizio Codogno, and Aaron Swartz, but errors and omissions here are my responsibility.

For buying books, I recommend BookFinder.com.

Books in honor of Martin Gardner

(These are Festschriften, or collections of works by different authors meant to honor Gardner. I think most or all of these are associated with the Gathering for Gardner, as a kind of proceedings of each G4G event.)

  1. (Berlekamp) The Mathemagician and Pied Puzzler
  2. (Burstein) A Bouquet for the Gardener: Martin Gardner Remembered
  3. (Cipra) Tribute to a Mathemagician
  4. (Demaine, Demaine, Rodgers) A Lifetime of Puzzles: A Collection of Puzzles in Honor of Martin Gardner's 90th Birthday
  5. (Henle and Hopkins) Martin Gardner in the Twenty-First Century
  6. (Klarner) The Mathematical Gardner (= Mathematical Recreations: A Collection in Honor of Martin Gardner)
  7. (Pegg) Homage to a Pied Puzzler
  8. (Pegg) Mathematical Wizardry for a Gardner
  9. (Wolfe) Puzzlers' Tribute

Books by Martin Gardner

(or co-authored or edited by Gardner; a few, with introductions or forewords by Gardner)

  1. (Abell and Singer) Science and the Paranormal: Probing the Existence of the Supernatural [SKEP]
  2. (Baum) American Fairy Tales [LIT]
  3. (Berg) Here's New Magic [MAG]
  4. (Carnap) (Philosophical Foundations of Physics) An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science [PHIL]
  5. (Carroll) Phantasmagoria [LIT]
  6. (Carroll) The Wasp in a Wig [LIT]
  7. (Dudeney) 536 Puzzles and Curious Problems [PUZZ]
  8. (Ecker) Dictionary of Science and Creationism [SKEP]
  9. (Fujimura) The Tokyo Puzzles [PUZZ]
  10. (Fuller) Confessions of a Psychic [SKEP]
  11. (Fuller) Further Confessions of a Psychic [SKEP]
  12. (Jacobs) Pitiless Parodies & Other Outrageous Verse [LIT]
  13. (Kordemsky) The Moscow Puzzles [PUZZ]
  14. (Thompson) Calculus Made Easy: Being a Very-Simplest Introduction to the Beautiful Methods of Reckoning which are Generally Called by the Terrifying Names of the Differential Calculus and the Integral Calculus [INTRO]
  15. (Wells) The Conquest of Time [LIT]
  16. (Wells) The Country of the Blind [LIT]
  17. (Whaley) The Man Who Was Erdnase [MAG]
  18. 12 Tricks with a Borrowed Deck [MAG]
  19. After the Dessert [MAG]
  20. Aha! Gotcha: Paradoxes to puzzle and delight [PUZZ]
  21. Aha! Insight [PUZZ] (has also been published in one volume with Aha! Gotcha)
  22. The Ambidextrous Universe (different editions have different subtitles!) [INTRO]
  23. Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries?: Discourses on Godel, Magic Hexagrams, Little Red Riding Hood, and Other Mathematical and Pseudoscience Topics [PHIL]
  24. The Annotated Alice [LIT]
  25. The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition [LIT]
  26. The Annotated Casey At the Bat [LIT]
  27. The Annotated Hunting of the Snark (= The Hunting of the Snark, The Annotated Snark) [LIT]
  28. The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown [LIT]
  29. The Annotated Man Who Was Thursday (= The Annotated Thursday) [LIT]
  30. The Annotated Night Before Christmas [LIT]
  31. The Annotated Rime of the Ancient Mariner (= The Annotated Ancient Mariner) [LIT]
  32. Archimedes: Mathematician and Inventor
  33. The Arrow Book of Brain Teasers [PUZZ]
  34. Baffling Brainteasers [PUZZ]
  35. Best Remembered Poems [ANTH]
  36. Classic Brainteasers [PUZZ]
  37. Codes, Ciphers, and Secret Writing [INTRO]
  38. The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems [REC]
  39. The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes & Problems [REC]
  40. Cut the Cards [this is reprinted in Martin Gardner Presents] [MAG]
  41. Did Adam and Eve Have Navels? Discourses on Reflexology, Numerology, Urine Therapy, and Other Dubious Subjects [SKEP]
  42. Die of Another Color [MAG]
  43. Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic [MAG]
  44. Entertaining Mathematical Puzzles [PUZZ]
  45. Entertaining Science Experiments with Everyday Objects [PUZZ]
  46. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science [SKEP]
  47. Famous Poems from Bygone Days [ANTH]
  48. The Flight of Peter Fromm [FIC]
  49. Fractal Music, Hypercards, and More [REC]
  50. From the Wandering Jew to William F. Buckley, Jr.: On Science, Literature, and Religion [SKEP]
  51. A Gardner's Workout: Training the Mind & Entertaining the Spirit [PUZZ]
  52. The Gardner-Smith Correspondence [MAG]
  53. Gardner's Whys and Wherefores [SKEP]
  54. Great Essays in Science (= The Sacred Beetle and Other Great Essays in Science) [ANTH]
  55. The Healing Revelations of Mary Baker Eddy: The Rise and Fall of Christian Science [SKEP]
  56. Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions (= The Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions; The First Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions; Hexaflexagons, Probability Paradoxes, and the Tower of Hanoi: Martin Gardner's First Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Games) [REC]
  57. How Not to Test a Psychic: Ten Years of Remarkable Experiments With Renowned Clairvoyant Pavel Stepanek [SKEP]
  58. In the Name of Science [SKEP] (can't find my copy)
  59. The Incredible Dr. Matrix: The World's Greatest Numerologist [MATRIX]
  60. The Jinn from Hyperspace [PHIL?]
  61. The Klutz Book of Magnetic Magic [MAG] (not Gardner)
  62. Knotted Doughnuts and Other Mathematical Entertainments [REC]
  63. The Last Recreations: Hydras, Eggs, and Other Mathematical Mystifications (= Flatland, Hydras, and Eggs: Mathematical Mystifications) [REC]
  64. Logic Machines and Diagrams [INTRO]
  65. Magic for the Elementary Science Class [MAG]
  66. Magic for the Science Class [MAG]
  67. The Magic Numbers of Dr. Matrix [MATRIX]
  68. Making the Alphabet Dance: Recreational Wordplay [PUZZ]
  69. Martin Gardner Presents [MAG]
  70. Martin Gardner's Favorite Poetic Parodies [ANTH]
  71. Martin Gardner's Science Tricks [MAG?] (= Smart Science Tricks?)
  72. Martin Gardner's Table Magic [MAG]
  73. Match-ic: More than Seventy Impromptu Tricks with Matches [MAG] (= Match Magic?)
  74. Mathematical Carnival [REC]
  75. Mathematical Circus [REC]
  76. Mathematical Magic Show [REC]
  77. Mathematical Puzzles [PUZZ]
  78. Mathematical Puzzles of Sam Loyd [PUZZ] (= Best Mathematical Puzzles of Sam Loyd? = Mathematical Puzzles?)
  79. Mathematics, Magic, and Mystery [MAG]
  80. Mental Magic: Surefire Tricks to Amaze Your Friends [MAG]
  81. Mind-Boggling Word Puzzles [PUZZ]
  82. More Annotated Alice [LIT]
  83. More Mathematical Puzzles of Sam Loyd [PUZZ]
  84. More Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers [PUZZ]
  85. My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles [PUZZ]
  86. Never Make Fun of a Turtle, My Son [LIT]
  87. The New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher [SKEP]
  88. The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings [INTRO]
  89. New Mathematical Diversions from Scientific American (= Martin Gardner's New Mathematical Diversions from Scientific American; Sphere Packing, Lewis Carroll, and Reversi) [REC]
  90. The Night is Large: Collected Essays, 1938-1995 [PHIL]
  91. The No-Sided Professor and Other Tales of Fantasy, Humor, Mystery, and Philosophy [ANTH]
  92. The Numerology of Dr. Matrix [MATRIX]
  93. The Nursery "Alice" [LIT]
  94. Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature [LIT]
  95. On the Wild Side [SKEP]
  96. Order and Surprise [PHIL]
  97. Over the Coffee Cups [MAG]
  98. Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers and the Return of Dr. Matrix [REC]
  99. Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers [PUZZ]
  100. Peter Puzzlemaker [PUZZ] (Gardner connection unclear)
  101. Peter Puzzlemaker Returns [PUZZ]
  102. Puzzles from Other Worlds [PUZZ]
  103. Puzzling Questions About the Solar System [PUZZ]
  104. Relativity Simply Explained (= Relativity for the Million, The Relativity Explosion) [INTRO]
  105. Riddles of the Sphinx [PUZZ]
  106. Science Fiction Puzzle Tales (= Mathematical Puzzle Tales?) [PUZZ]
  107. Science Magic: Martin Gardner's Tricks and Puzzles [PUZZ?]
  108. Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus [SKEP]
  109. Science Puzzlers [PUZZ]
  110. The Second Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions (= vol. 2 of the Scientific American Book; Origami, Eleusis, and the Soma Cube: Martin Gardner's Mathematical Diversions) [REC]
  111. The Sixth Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions (= Martin Gardner's 6th Book...) [REC]
  112. The Snark Puzzle Book [PUZZ]
  113. Space Puzzles [PUZZ]
  114. Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments [REC]
  115. Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: The Autobiography of Martin Gardner [LIT]
  116. The Unexpected Hanging and Other Mathematical Diversions [REC]
  117. The Universe in a Handkerchief: Lewis Carroll's Mathematical Recreations, Games, Puzzles, and Word Plays [LIT?] [PUZZ]
  118. Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery [SKEP]
  119. Visitors from Oz [FIC]
  120. Weird Water and Fuzzy Logic: More Notes of a Fringe Watcher [SKEP]
  121. Wheels, Life, and Other Mathematical Amusements [REC]
  122. When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish: and Other Speculations About This and That [SKEP]
  123. The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener [PHIL]
  124. The Wizard of Oz and Who He Was [LIT]
  125. The Wreck of the Titanic Foretold? [SKEP]

Once again, I'm trying to make this list complete; it includes the majority of Gardner's books, but may not be entirely complete. If you know of any other published book by Martin Gardner, please tell me about it.

Categories:
LIT Annotations, literary criticism, and history
ANTH Anthologies
INTRO Overview/introduction to a subject in math or science
PUZZ Puzzle books (some related to REC, some more traditional)
MATRIX Books about Dr. Irving Joshua Matrix (fictionalized spin-off from REC)
REC Scientific American books (collections of "Mathematical Recreations" columns)
SKEP Skepticism
PHIL Philosophy and essays
MAG Conjuring
FIC Fiction

Others:

  1. Frames of Mind is by a different Gardner
  2. The Secret of Cooking for Cats is by a different Gardner
  3. Introductions for many titles
  4. Introductions/annotations for many works of L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll (including Sylvie and Bruno?), G. K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells


Seth Schoen, <schoen@loyalty.org>