[snarks_when_bored]

I was really stunned by the number of well-known people Gardner has encountered in his life. Donald Knuth and John Conway as friends and houseguests? Whoa. And, you're right, those personal details are fascinating.

[Steely Tom]

I was an avid reader of Scientific American from sixth grade through my early '30's (around the time that the character of the magazine began to change). Martin Gardner's column was one of my favorite things about the magazine (but my list of favorite things about the old Sci Am is pretty long).

I believe John Horton Conway was introduced to a wide public through Gardner's Mathematical Games column in about 1970 or perhaps 1971, when Conway's Game of Life became a fad among the belt-mounted slide-rule-holster set. The Game of Life was a big, big influence on me, functioning to some extent to put me on the life path I've pursued to this day.

I vaguely remember a column or two about Knuth.

Three or four times a year Gardner would write devote a column to the adventures of Dr. Irving Joshua Matrix and his beautiful Amerasian daughter Iva. These he would write in the first person, mostly so he could personally enjoy the flirtations of Iva, who was always just out of reach.

(steely)