Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Celebrating Newman's "World of Mathematics"

Lionel Deimel is a database and Web site designer, a steam locomotive enthusiast, a cat lover, an essayist and a poet who maintains an eclectic website entitled Lionel Deimel’s Farrago.  There I found a small poem about one of my most-valued literary treasures, The World of Mathematics, a four-volume collection compiled with commentaries and notes by James R Newman, first printed in 1956. The range of topics is vast and the primary requirement for reading is not calculus but curiosity.  Sections of Volume 4 include "Mathematics in Literature," "Mathematics as a Culture Clue," and "A Mathematical Theory of Art." (You should not be without this fine collection.)    Here is Deimel's poem: 


These poems of Lionel Deimel and others in this blog
are protected by copyright.
Persons wishing to post poems on another site
must contact the author with a permission request.
THANKS to Deimel and others who have permitted postings here.

A second poem by Lionel Deimel considers the differences among us as we each  "do what comes naturally."  We -- computer scientists, mathematicians, poets or whomever -- are not all alike!  

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