The Man Who Loved Only Numbers

The Story of Paul Erdős and the Search for Mathematical Truth

by Paul Hoffman

English language

Published July 10, 1999

ISBN:: 978-0-7868-8406-3

(1 review)

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers is a biography of the famous mathematician Paul Erdős written by Paul Hoffman. The book was first published on July 15, 1998, by Hyperion Books as a hardcover edition. A paperback edition appeared in 1999. The book is, in the words of the author, "a work in oral history based on the recollections of Erdős, his collaborators and their spouses". The book was a bestseller in the United Kingdom and has been published in 15 different languages. The book won the 1999 Rhône-Poulenc Prize beating many distinguished and established writers, including E. O. Wilson.

2 editions

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4 stars

Couldn't tie his shoes or turn off a faucet, Erdos was a speed freak celibate number theorist and child prodigy against whom every subsequent mathematician is measured. Hoffman turns Erdos' life and work into a genuine page-turner where other impossible mathematicians make cameo appearances making for a scary hilarious window into the human capacity for and obsession with symbolic reasoning. A book for number haters, lovers, and head-scratchers alike.