Математиктер тарихы: Е.Т. Белль кітабы

Popular history book of mathematics by E. T. Bell

Men of Mathematics: The Lives and Achievements of the Great Mathematicians from Zeno to Poincaré is a book on the history of mathematics published in 1937 by Scottish born American mathematician and science fiction writer E. T. Bell (1883–1960). After a brief chapter on three ancient mathematicians, it covers the lives of about forty mathematicians who flourished in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. The book is illustrated by mathematical discussions, with emphasis on mainstream mathematics. To keep the interest of readers, the book typically focuses on unusual or dramatic aspects of its subjects' lives. Men of Mathematics has inspired many young people, including John Forbes Nash Jr., Julia Robinson, and Freeman Dyson, to become mathematicians. It is not intended as a rigorous history, and includes many anecdotal accounts.

In July 1935, Bell signed a contract with Simon and Schuster, for a book to be titled The Lives of Mathematicians. He delivered the manuscript at the beginning of November 1935 as promised, but was unhappy when the publishers made him cut about a third of it (125,000 words), and, in order to tie in with their book Men of Art (by Thomas Craven), gave it the title Men of Mathematics which he did not like. He was also unhappy with how long they took to print it: even before he had received his first printed copy in March 1937, he had written and got into print another book, The Handmaiden of the Sciences.