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Martin Gardner never considered himself a mathematician. As he himself wrote in the preface to his "last recreations" (The Last Recreations, Springer, 1997): "I had taken no mathematics courses as a student at the University of Chicago—my major was philosophy—but I had always loved mathematics, and I sometimes regret not pursuing a career in the field. One need only glance through the collections of books drawn from the columns [his columns for Scientific American] to see that they gradually became more sophisticated as I learned more mathematics." He always displayed immense modesty: "I am strictly a journalist; I merely write about what others are doing in the field."
An influence on professional mathematicians
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Martin Gardner's columns profoundly influenced the lives of Ronald Graham and Persi Diaconis, steering them toward the study of mathematics.
