Can anybody identify this book on mathematics ?

I am hoping that this is the appropriate forum to post this question, which is, unfortunately, rather vague …

From my early twenties, I have always been fascinated by what might be termed “recreational mathematics”. I went to school back in the sixties, and I really really hated my math classes , it was an interminable learning by rote of trigonometrical and algebraic formulae, with bugger all relevance to anything in the real world as far as I could determine at the time. Later on, of course, I was to discover that trig and geometry were actually indispensable in the real world of manufacturing and engineering, but I also discovered that there was a beauty in mathematics itself which didn’t necessarily require justification on any "practical " level.

Thing is, I remember, in the early seventies, going to our local library on a Saturday morning, and reading this book in the reference section (ie non-lending) which absolutely enthralled me, it portrayed mathematics in a most interesting, accessible way, but … I cannot remember the title, and I cannot remember the name of the author or the publisher.

What I do recall is that the book was written by a woman, and I also recall that she had a mid-European sounding name, maybe Hungarian or Polish, and I seem to recollect that her first name might have begun with an “R”.

More than that I cannot remember, and I know that this is a really long shot, and for all I know the book may well be (and probably is) long out of print by now, but if these few scraps of info can jog anybody’s memory, I figured that this forum would be the place to track the book down.

It would be amazing if I were able to buy a copy after all these years …

I can think of two female writers of books of mathematics that might possibly be the kind of thing you were talking about which would have existed back in the early seventies, but their names don’t really fit your description: Constance Reid (author of From Zero to Infinity: What Makes Numbers Interesting and other books) and Edna Kramer (author of The Nature and Growth of Modern Mathematics and other books).

You might also have found the Time-Life book on Mathematics. The credited author is male, but I mention it just in case there was another contributor whose name you’re remembering.

That’s the best I can do…

Thank you, TB, and I shall be purchasing books by both these authors.

I can’t help with the original question, but let me recommend “What is Mathematics?” by Courant and Robbins. It is one of the things that got me into math. It is not exactly recreational, but an interesting survey of many branches of more-or-less elementary mathematics. Also any book by Martin Gardner.

Caveat: Martin Gardner wrote on many subjects; not all of his books are about mathematics (which is not to say they aren’t worth reading).

I can’t help with your original question, but since this thread seems to be turning into a ‘recommend good ‘overview’ books on math which emphasize its beauty and grandeur’, I can’t help but put in a plug for The Mathematical Experience by Davis and Hersh.

It is a magnificent book which to this day remains my all-time favourite of the overview type. As one example of the book’s excellence, even with my rather rudimentary math background (my SDMB moniker notwithstanding), the authors made it almost effortless for me to “understand” some of the deep connections of the Riemann hypothesis - an advanced math topic if there ever was one. In other words, this is a book for the interested layperson which truly reveals some of the wonder and excitement of math, even with respect to “advanced” ideas and subjects.

Came to rec Davis and Hersh also. If you like The Mathematical Experience, continue on to Descartes’ Dream.

Not a woman, but I have several books by John Allen Paulos - Wikipedia that might amuse you.