Recommendations for mathematical essayists

Question

I was wondering if people had recommendations for mathematical essays (by this I mean essays on a mathematical topic, not necessarily essays written by mathematicians).

A person who I used to find entertaining to read at high school was Isaac Asimov, although for some reason he did not write many essays on pure mathematics. In particular I remember the essay collection X Stands for Unknown, which had several entertaining mathematics essays, most of them with a combinatorial flavour if I remember rightly.

there is an extensive list at https://mathoverflow.net/q/220052/11260 — Carlo Beenakker, Jul 01 '20 at 17:51
Martin Gardner, maybe? But does this question belong to Mathoverflow? — user43326, Jul 01 '20 at 17:51

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 01 '20 at 17:47

4

Gian-Carlo Rota wrote beautifully and widely, my personal favourite.

answered Jul 01 '20 at 17:47

J.J. Green

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 01 '22 at 18:52

1

Ed Sandifer and his column in AMM "How Euler Did It" ("HEDI").

answered Nov 01 '22 at 18:52

Gottfried Helms

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Recommendations for mathematical essayists

2 Answers2