536 Puzzles and Curious Problems

536 Puzzles and Curious Problems

Henry Ernest Dudeney (the last name is pronounced with a long "u" and a strong accent on the first syllable, as in "scrutiny") was England's greatest maker of puzzles. With respect to mathematical puzzles, especially problems of more than trivial mathematical interest, the quantity and quality of his output surpassed that of any other puzzlist before or since, in or out of England. Dudeney was born at Mayfield, in Sussex, on April 10, 1857, the son of a local schoolmaster. His father's father, John Dudeney, was well known in Sussex as a shepherd who had taught himself mathematics and astronomy while tending sheep on the downs above Lewes, a town fifty miles south of London. Later he became a schoolmaster in Lewes. Henry Dudeney, himself a self-taught mathematician who never went to college, was understandably proud to be the grandson of this famous shepherd-mathematician.