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The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth Hardcover – July 15, 1998

4.1 out of 5 stars 131 customer reviews

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Hachette Books; 1st edition (July 15, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0786863625
  • ISBN-13: 978-0786863624
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (131 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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By Dennis Littrell HALL OF FAME on March 30, 2002
Format: Paperback
I very much enjoyed this biography (Hoffman calls it "in large part a work of oral history") of the legendary Hungarian mathematician, Paul Erdös. Hoffman's relaxed style with his attention to detail and concrete expression makes it a pleasure to read. You don't need to know any mathematics. Hoffman mentions the math and occasionally goes lightly into it, but for the most part the focus is on the eccentric and loveable mathematician himself and his many friends and collaborators. In fact, the title is somewhat ironic since Erdös was very much a people person, a man who loved and was loved by others. It is only in the case of "romantic" love that Erdös loved only numbers.

By the way, Hoffman does indeed go into Erdös's sex life in a completely tasteful and PG-13 sort of way. He was a man who dearly loved his mother and children but practiced a deep and abiding celibacy all his life. His friends made many jokes about his uneasiness with "bosses" (his pet name for women) and once made a bet with him that he could not go to a burlesque show. He did however, but took off his glasses so he couldn't see anything.

Erdös was a pure mathematician, a child prodigy who fell in love with numbers at an early age and never lost his love while wandering over the entire globe searching for collaborators. He was himself a caricature of the absent-minded professor, a man who asked others to tie his shoes for him, a man who could not drive, who worked nineteen hours at day at mathematics, often calling his friends up at four in the morning to share an insight. He paid no attention to his appearance, cared nothing for literature, the arts, sports, etc., only for his beloved math.
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Format: Hardcover
This is a disappointing book. Certainly Paul Hoffman should be commended for writing a math book that so many people find lively and informative. Probably it is the only profile of a mathematician that many people will read. But the author makes mistakes of several types. There are what might by typographical errors. For example, on page 252 we find a description of Béla Bolobás who "won Hungary's infamous student math competition..." If the competition is in fact infamous, the reader is never told why.

There are errors of fact. For example, a fainting episode described on pages 244 and 245 as having happened in Boca Raton actually happened in Baton Rouge and was later repeated in Kalamazoo. We learn in this book that Kurt Gödel was an Austrian. This will come as sad news to Czechs and Moravians.

There are less objective examples. For instance Erdös is credited with developing the probabilistic method. While Erdös certainly championed the method and demonstrated its power, it is overreaching to give him all the credit. I would not want to guess as to who first used it, although some attribute it to William Feller. Certainly Tibor Szele used the method in a paper published in 1943. The paper was reviewed by Erdös in Mathematical Reviews. He did not use it until his paper on Ramsey Theory in 1947.

But these sorts of problems are mostly minor and have been perhaps corrected in subsequent printings. There is a deeper problem with the structure of the book. Much of the book is based on the author's 1987 article which appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. Discover Magazine also published some of the book. As magazine articles, I thought they worked very well.
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Format: Paperback
I knew Paul Erdos since I was a small child. I consider that this book, and, even more, the blurb about it, misrepresent him quite seriously. According to the book, Hoffman did not know Erdos well personally; and his portrayal of him in the book is simultaneously oversimplified, confused and inaccurate. I am giving the book two stars rather than one, because at least it is better and more accurate than the blurb about it.
Erdos is portrayed as narrowly obsessed with mathematics, to the point of almost being a freak. He is described in the blurb as having none of the normal interests in sex, companionship, art or even food. While I don't usually describe the personal characterstics of my friends and acquaintances in a public review, Erdos has for some reason become so much of a topic for public discussion that I feel that I should respond to some of the wilder remarks. It is true that Erdos was celibate, but he had a very great liking for companionship, and friendships were important to him..
He disliked being alone, and mostly managed to avoid being alone. He had a very large number of friends, to whom he was very warm and caring and extremely generous. Yes, he could be a tiring guest, but he gave far more than he ever took, and far more than most people ever do. He gave absolutely unstintingly of his time, mathematical ideas, money (whenever he had any) and influence (whenever he had any). He always made very special efforts not only to visit and help his friends when ill or in difficulties, but to do the same with the friends and relations of his friends. Not all his friends were mathematicians. Notably, he was extremely fond of children.
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