"Modern skepticism is a movement grounded in science, and it began with Martin Gardner's classic [...]: Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science\*." This quotation is from Michael Shermer, founder and president of The Skeptics Society, editor-in-chief of the magazine Skeptic and author of a regular skeptic column in Scientific American. Such a tribute to Gardner is very widely shared today, and the story behind this founding book deserves to be recalled.
\*Les magiciens démasqués, Presses de la Cité, 1966.
In the name of science --------------------
"My first piece of writing on pseudoscience, Gardner recalls, is an article entitled The Hermit Scientist, which appeared in the Antioch Review (Winter 1950–51). A friend […] persuaded me to turn it into a book. I spent many months at the New York Public Library researching crank scientists. The result was a hardcover volume entitled In the Name of Science, published by Putnam in 1952. Sales were poor, and the book was soon set aside. The late Hayward Cirker, founder and president of Dover, picked up the book and republished it in paperback, but under the new title: Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science.
Sales then shot up, mainly thanks to the relentless attacks on the book by guests on an all-night radio show hosted by Long John Nebel."