"...a story of great mathematicians and their achievements, of practical successes and failures, and of human perfidy and generosity...this is one of the still too rare occasions in which mathematicians are shown as frail, flesh-and-blood creatures...a very worthwhile book." -CHOICE[...]

A combination of number lore, number history, and descriptions of the simply stated, but difficult problems posed by the ordinary numbers that first appeared in 1955.[...]