If geeks are reputed to have few social skills, Erdos had none. Almost pure geek, he lived for decades out of two battered suitcases, frenetically criss-crossing the world, giving lectures, attacking problems, furiously publishing papers, and unnerving the friends he dropped in on unexpectedly. When they build the Geek Hall of Fame, in some musty corner of MIT or in a dingey loft in San Francisco's Mission District, there surely will be a corner reserved to honor the mythic mathematician Paul Erdos, whose odd and poignant life is vividly captured in the "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers," by Paul Hoffman (Hyperion, US $22.95).Įrdos, who died in l996, was one of the greatest mathematicians of the century, as well as a profound eccentric. Click below to read more about a true geek. This is literary tribute to the life and work of Paul Erdos, the eminent mathematician that died last year. Well, Jon Katz has sent in his first book review, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, written by Paul Hoffman.
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