536 Puzzles and Curious Problems Format: Paperback

For two decades, self-taught mathematician Henry E. Dudeney wrote a puzzle page, "Perplexities," for The Strand Magazine. Martin Gardner, longtime editor of Scientific American's mathematical games column, hailed Dudeney as "England's greatest maker of puzzles," unsurpassed in the quantity and quality of his inventions. This compilation of Dudeney's long-inaccessible challenges attests to the puzzle-maker's gift for creating witty and compelling conundrums.
This treasury of intriguing puzzles begins with a selection of arithmetical and algebraical problems, including challenges involving money, time, speed, and distance. Geometrical problems follow, along with combinatorial and topological problems that feature magic squares and stars, route and network puzzles, and map coloring puzzles. The collection concludes with a series of game, domino, match, and unclassified puzzles. Solutions for all 536 problems are included, and charming drawings enliven the book.

English author and mathematician Henry E. Dudeney (1857–1930) specialized in logic and mathematical puzzles. His column, "Perplexities," was a regular feature in The Strand Magazine for 20 years, and in 1926 he published the first known crossnumber puzzle.