Martin Gardner, born in 1914, died on May 22nd. He wrote science fiction puzzle stories for Asimov’s from just about the first issue, as well as a study of and a sequel to L. Frank Baum’s Oz series (two completely different books). I was alerted to his passing by a posting in Locus Magazine online, but for 35 years he wrote my favorite column in Scientific American, Mathematical Puzzles, so if you really want to know the full range of this brilliant mathematician and author, see their tribute to Martin Gardner.
