Compiled from the best of John Conway�s popular �Retrospect� column, these articles shine a spotlight on famous faces of the past, from George Suslosky, phenomenal yet feisty diner cook, to �the worst woman on earth,� Lizzie Brown Halliday. Enlightening and entertaining, the remarkable historical vignettes in this volume explore the customs and curiosities of the Sullivan County Catskills. High on a bank in Craig-e-Clare sat the stately Dundas Castle, rumored to house a beautiful woman who...

First inhabited by the Lenape Indians and settled by European colonists in the seventeenth century, New York�s Sullivan County has experienced several ages of prosperity and growth over the last two hundred years. Locals conceived of timber rafting in the eighteenth century to support the shipbuilding industry, followed by a prosperous tanning boom in the nineteenth century that supplied leather to the Union army. Finally, two periods of tourism, known as the �Silver Age� and �Golden Age,�...

This textbook in point set topology is aimed at an upper-undergraduate audience. Its gentle pace will be useful to students who are still learning to write proofs. Prerequisites include calculus and at least one semester of analysis, where the student has been properly exposed to the ideas of basic set theory such as subsets, unions, intersections, and functions, as well as convergence and other topological notions in the real line. Appendices are included to bridge the gap between this ne...

Originally written to define the relation between the theories of transfinite numbers and mathematical games, the resulting work is a mathematically sophisticated but eminently enjoyable guide to game theory. By defining numbers as the strengths of positions in certain games, the author arrives at a new class that includes both real numbers and ordinal numbers: surreal numbers. The second edition presents developments in mathematical game theory, focusing on surreal numbers and the additiv...

World-famous mathematician John H. Conway based this classic text on a 1966 course he taught at Cambridge University. Geared toward graduate students of mathematics, it will also prove a valuable guide to researchers and professional mathematicians.His topics cover Moore's theory of experiments, Kleene's theory of regular events and expressions, Kleene algebras, the differential calculus of events, factors and the factor matrix, and the theory of operators. Additional subjects inclu...

Buckrammer's Tales In the Fall of 2003, Catboat Summers, a collection of boating memoirs hit bookseller's shelves. It quickly became a bestseller among nautical books, praised by reviewers and readers alike. This new compilation continues in the same mold ... but with a bit more edge. As in Catboat Summers, the "Tales" in this book are paced so that each can each be read in "one shot." If you favor ghost stories, near disasters, family boating misadventures and/or tales of buried treasure,...

Start with a single shape. Repeat it in some way—translation, reflection over a line, rotation around a point—and you have created symmetry. Symmetry is a fundamental phenomenon in art, science, and nature that has been captured, described, and analyzed using mathematical concepts for a long time. Inspired by the geometric intuition of Bill Thurston and empowered by his own analytical skills, John Conway, with his coauthors, has developed a comprehensive mathematical theory of symmetry tha...

Memories of The Catskills: The Making of a Hotel, by Alvin L. Lesser, with a foreword by John Conway, Sullivan County Historian, takes the reader back to a time and place that was like no other. Families wishing to get out of the stifling heat of a New York City summer and other nearby crowded areas, found the perfect escape in "the Catskills." By sharing an insider's view of one person's life in this magical arena, Lesser lets readers experience the fun and the work that went into creatin...

In the quarter of a century since three mathematicians and game theorists collaborated to create Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays, the book has become the definitive work on the subject of mathematical games. Now carefully revised and broken down into four volumes to accommodate new developments, the Second Edition retains the original's wealth of wit and wisdom. The authors' insightful strategies, blended with their witty and irreverent style, make reading a profitable pleasure. I...

This classic on games and how to play them intelligently is being re-issued in a new, four volume edition. This book has laid the foundation to a mathematical approach to playing games. The wise authors wield witty words, which wangle wonderfully winning ways. In Volume 1, the authors do the Spade Work, presenting theories and techniques to "dissect" games of varied structures and formats in order to develop winning strategies.

Europe's engagement from the late sixteenth century onwards in scientific Earth science inquiry has generated numerous and varied collections of minerals, rocks, and fossils, together with their associated archives, artworks and publications, forming a rich cultural geoheritage held in major private and especially royal and aristocratic collections, museums, universities, archives and libraries. The mines, quarries, geological structures, landforms, minerals, rocks and fossils - or geodive...

Collects Ka-Zar (1974) #6-9 and material from Savage Tales (1971) #5-11. The Marvel Masterworks series unveils more gems from the Hidden Jungle with a third volume devoted to Ka-Zar and that lovable little furball, Zabu! The creative team of Gerry Conway and John Buscema turn out top-notch jungle action with a run of stories in their run from the full-color Ka-Zar comic: Zabu is taken captive by the evil priest Sandratha to be used as a sacrifice for an ancient ritual! Ka-Zar also takes on...