The Annotated Alice
The best entry point to Gardner's literary annotation and one of his most influential books.
Author guide
Martin Gardner Books in Order
Martin Gardner (1914–2010) was an American writer whose wide-ranging work included recreational mathematics, popular science, close-up magic, scientific skepticism, philosophy, religion, literary criticism, poetry, and fiction. He wrote Scientific American's influential Mathematical Games column from 1956 to 1981 and published more than 100 books, including The Annotated Alice, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, The Ambidextrous Universe, and numerous collections of mathematical puzzles and essays. His posthumous memoir, Undiluted Hocus-Pocus, was assembled from his autobiographical writing.
recreational mathematicspuzzles and gamespopular sciencescientific skepticismmagicliterary criticismfictionpoetryphilosophyreligion
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Mathematical Carnival: A New Round-Up of Tantalizers and Puzzles from Scientific American
An accessible introduction to Gardner's recreational mathematics and Scientific American writing.
In the Name of Science: An Entertaining Survey of the High Priests and Cultists of Science, Past and Present
His foundational skeptical work in its original publication form.
Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: The Autobiography of Martin Gardner
A direct autobiographical introduction to Gardner's life and interests.
Read in order
Books by series
book-series · complete
Scientific American Mathematical Games
The fifteen principal book collections of Gardner's Mathematical Games columns from Scientific American, commonly called the Canon.
- 1 The Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions
Book 1 · puzzle-book · 1959
- 2 The 2nd Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions
Book 2 · puzzle-book · 1961
- 3 Martin Gardner's New Mathematical Diversions from Scientific American
Book 3 · puzzle-book · 1966
- 4
- 5 The Unexpected Hanging and Other Mathematical Diversions
Book 5 · puzzle-book · 1969
- 6 Martin Gardner's Sixth Book of Mathematical Games from Scientific American
Book 6 · puzzle-book · 1971
- 7 Mathematical Carnival: A New Round-Up of Tantalizers and Puzzles from Scientific American
Book 7 · puzzle-book · 1975
- 8 Mathematical Magic Show
Book 8 · puzzle-book · 1977
- 9 Mathematical Circus
Book 9 · puzzle-book · 1979
- 10 Wheels, Life, and Other Mathematical Amusements
Book 10 · puzzle-book · 1983
'Martin Gardner is an amateur magician, but, putting in the shade all his sleight-of-hand, is the magic whereby he can take any mathematical subject and make it impossible for me to stop reading till he stops writing- whether I know…
- 11 Knotted Doughnuts and Other Mathematical Entertainments
Book 11 · puzzle-book · 1986
Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games columns in Scientific American inspired and entertained several generations of mathematicians and scientists. Gardner in his crystal-clear prose illuminated corners of mathematics, especially…
- 12 Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments
Book 12 · puzzle-book · 1987
Describes puzzles involving time travel paradoxes, hexes, stars, cards, anamorphic art, magic squares, and polygons
- 13 Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers
Book 13 · puzzle-book · 1989
Offers puzzles and problems dealing with logic, fractals, negative numbers, topology, and geometry.
- 14 Fractal Music, Hypercards and More: Mathematical Recreations from Scientific American
Book 14 · puzzle-book · 1991
- 15 Last Recreations: Hydras, Eggs, and Other Mathematical Mystifications
Book 15 · puzzle-book · 1997
book-series · complete
The Secret Notebooks of Uriah Fuller
Gardner's fictionalized books presenting the notebooks and claims of the psychic Uriah Fuller.
- 1 Confessions of a Psychic: The Secret Notebooks of Uriah Fuller
Book 1 · nonfiction · 1975
- 2 Further Confessions of a Psychic: The Secret Notebooks of Uriah Fuller
Book 2 · nonfiction · 1980
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (11)
- Mathematics, Magic, and Mystery
nonfiction · 1956
- Logic Machines and Diagrams
nonfiction · 1958
- The Flight of Peter Fromm
novel · 1973
- Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus
nonfiction · 1981
- The Wreck of the Titanic Foretold?
nonfiction · 1986
- Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery
nonfiction · 1995
Martin Gardner, one of America's most acclaimed science writers, has here compiled the first complete history of a growing, modern religious cult. Gardner traces the cult's beginnings back to its "bible," The Urantia Book, a book…
- Visitors from Oz: The Wild Adventures of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman in the United States
novel · 1998
Ever since The Wizard of Oz was first published in 1900, Dorothy and her companions have captured the imaginations of Americans. By placing the story in Manhattan of the late 1990s, with cameo appearances by Rudy Giuliani, Oprah Winfrey,…
- Calculus Made Easy
nonfiction · 1998
Nonfiction (4)
- The Ambidextrous Universe: Mirror Asymmetry and Time-Reversed Worlds
popular science · 1964
From where does the difference between left and right come? Is it a fundamental property of the universe, or is it arbitrary?
- The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener
philosophy · 1983
A noted author defends his personal attitudes toward the fundamental issues of classical philosophy, discussing the awesome mystery surrounding science and life and explaining why he considers himself a theist.
Short fiction (4)
- Science Fiction Puzzle Tales
short-story-collection · 1981
- Puzzles from Other Worlds
short-story-collection · 1984
- Riddles of the Sphinx and Other Mathematical Puzzle Tales
short-story-collection · 1987
- The No-Sided Professor and Other Tales of Fantasy, Humor, Mystery, and Philosophy
short-story-collection · 1987
Essays and speeches (19)
- Match-ic: More Than Seventy Impromptu Tricks with Matches
pamphlet · 1935
- 12 Tricks with a Borrowed Deck
pamphlet · 1940
- After the Dessert
pamphlet · 1941
- Magic for the Science Class
pamphlet · 1941
- Magic for the Elementary Science Class
pamphlet · 1941
- Cut the Cards
pamphlet · 1942
- Order and Surprise
essay-collection · 1983
- The New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher
essay-collection · 1988
- Gardner's Whys & Wherefores
essay-collection · 1989
- Weird Water & Fuzzy Logic: More Notes of a Fringe Watcher
essay-collection · 1996
- The Night Is Large: Collected Essays, 1938–1995
essay-collection · 1996
- From the Wandering Jew to William F. Buckley, Jr.: On Science, Literature, and Religion
essay-collection · 2000
- Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience
essay-collection · 2001
"[Gardner] zaps his targets with laserlike precision and wit."—Entertainment Weekly Martin Gardner is perhaps the wittiest, most devastating unmasker of scientific fraud and intellectual chicanery of our time. Here he muses on topics as…
- A Gardner's Workout: Training the Mind and Entertaining the Spirit
essay-collection · 2001
- The Jinn from Hyperspace: And Other Scribblings—Both Serious and Whimsical
essay-collection · 2007
- The Fantastic Fiction of Gilbert Chesterton: Essays on His Novels and Short Stories
essay-collection · 2008
- When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish: And Other Speculations About This and That
essay-collection · 2009
Children's books (13)
- Science Puzzlers
children's-book · 1957
- Archimedes: Mathematician and Inventor
children's-book · 1966
- Space Puzzles: Curious Questions and Answers About the Solar System
children's-book · 1972
- The Snark Puzzle Book
children's puzzle-book · 1973
Seventy-five brain teasers relating to Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "The Hunting of the Snark."
- Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing
children's-book · 1984
Explains various methods used in cryptography and presents examples to help readers in breaking secret codes
- Science Magic: Martin Gardner's Tricks and Puzzles
children's-book · 1997
A collection of tricks, stunts, and puzzles that explore the properties of water, air, friction, heat, motion, light, and more.
- Mind-Boggling Word Puzzles
children's puzzle-book · 2001
- Smart Science Tricks
children's-book · 2004
- Optical Illusion Play Pack
children's-book · 2008
- The Adventures of Humphrey Huckleberry
children's-book · 2009
Poetry (3)
- The Annotated Casey at the Bat: A Collection of Ballads about the Mighty Casey
annotated poetry · 1967
- Never Make Fun of a Turtle, My Son
poetry · 1969
Collaborations (2)
- The Wizard of Oz and Who He Was
co-authored literary study · 1957
- The Colossal Book of Wordplay
co-authored puzzle-book · 2010
Other (22)
- Here's New Magic: An Array of New and Original Magic Secrets
magic-book · 1937
- Over the Coffee Cups
magic-book · 1949
- The Annotated Alice
annotated-book · 1960
- Mathematical Puzzles
puzzle-book · 1961
- The Annotated Snark
annotated-book · 1962
- The Annotated Ancient Mariner
annotated-book · 1965
- Aha! Insight
puzzle-book · 1978
Contains puzzles that first baffle and then delight problem solving addicts. Grew out of a collaboration between Bob Tappay and Martin Gardner to enliven the learning of mathematics.
- The Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic
magic-book · 1978
- Aha! Gotcha: Paradoxes to Puzzle and Delight
puzzle-book · 1982
A pocket book of riddles, full of fun and illustrations
- The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown
annotated-book · 1987
- More Annotated Alice
annotated-book · 1990
- My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles
puzzle-book · 1994
The noted expert selects 70 of his favorite "short" puzzles, including such mind-bogglers as The Returning Explorer, The Mutilated Chessboard, Scrambled Box Tops, and dozens more involving logic and basic math. Solutions included.
- A Die of Another Color
magic-book · 1995
- The Universe in a Handkerchief: Lewis Carroll's Mathematical Recreations, Games, Puzzles, and Word Plays
literary mathematics · 1996
This book contains scores of intriguing puzzles and paradoxes from Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, whose interests ranged from inventing new games like Arithmetical Croquet to important problems in symbolic logic and…
- Mental Magic: Surefire Tricks to Amaze Your Friends
magic-book · 1999
A collection of math tricks using the magic of numbers in which the marvelous Professor Picanumba can seemingly predict random events in dozens of numerical exercises. Includes answers at the end.
- The Gardner-Smith Correspondence: Martin Gardner's Correspondence with Marshall D. Smith
correspondence · 1999
- The Annotated Thursday: G. K. Chesterton's Masterpiece, The Man Who Was Thursday
annotated-book · 1999
- The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Problems
puzzle-book · 2001
- The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems
puzzle-book · 2005
- Impromptu: The Complete Collection of Martin Gardner's Impromptu Magic
magic-book · 2015
Frequently asked questions about Martin Gardner
Who was Martin Gardner, and when did he live?
Martin Gardner was an American writer and popularizer of mathematics and science. He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on October 21, 1914, and died in Norman, Oklahoma, on May 22, 2010.
Sources: martin-gardner.org (opens in a new tab)mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk (opens in a new tab)
What was Martin Gardner best known for?
He was best known for writing Scientific American’s “Mathematical Games” column from 1956 to 1981. The column made recreational mathematics, puzzles, and mathematical ideas accessible to a broad audience.
Sources: scientificamerican.com (opens in a new tab)old.maa.org (opens in a new tab)
What interests and influences shaped Martin Gardner’s writing?
His interests included magic, philosophy, literature—especially Lewis Carroll—and scientific skepticism. Although he had no formal mathematics training, his wide-ranging reading and lifelong fascination with puzzles helped shape his distinctive style.
Sources: scientificamerican.com (opens in a new tab)mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk (opens in a new tab)
What awards did Martin Gardner receive?
Major honors included the American Mathematical Society’s Leroy P. Steele Prize for exposition in 1987 and the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award in 1994. These recognized his influential writing and public communication of mathematics.
Sources: maa.org (opens in a new tab)mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk (opens in a new tab)
What is Martin Gardner’s legacy?
Gardner helped popularize recreational mathematics and inspired generations of readers and mathematicians through clear, playful exposition. His influence continues through the Mathematical Association of America’s Martin Gardner Lecture and the Gathering 4 Gardner organization.
Sources: scientificamerican.com (opens in a new tab)maa.org (opens in a new tab)martin-gardner.org (opens in a new tab)