The Last Recreations - Hydras, Eggs, and Other Mathematical Mystifications

"It's fitting that a man who has written so lucidly on paradoxes has had a career that is in itself a bit of a paradox. Martin Gardner never took a mathematics course in college, yet probably has done more to stimulate an appreciation for curiosity about, and discussion of mathematical ideas than any 213 of us mathematics professors. His last collection of Scientific American columns is a most worthy capstone to a remarkable career as an expositor extraordinaire."
John Allen Paulos, Author of Innumeracy and Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

"My interests in mathematics, logic, symmetry, words, patterns, magic, and mystery were all enormously catalyzed by Martin Gardner's historic Scientific American columns. It is sad indeed that there will be no more. But this capstone volume, concluding a monumental series of volumes of which I am proud to own every one completes a collection that will stand as an inspiration for many generations of people, leading them to fall in love, as I did with deep themes that have forever fascinated humanity's best minds, and hopefully always will."
Douglas R. Hofstadter, Author of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid and Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies

"The Last Recreations is the brilliant capstone to Martin Gardner's unrivalled career as the king of mathematical exposition."
Ronald Graham Author of Concrete Mathematics

"Martin Gardner is quite simply the most captivating, entertaining, and downright accessible mathematics writer the world has ever seen. His long-running column in Scientific American was probably more instrumental than anything or anyone else in enticing people to become professional mathematicians-or just plain math lovers."
Keith Devlin Author of Mathematics: The Science of Patterns and Goodbye, Descartes