In Prime Obsession I remarked of the great

German mathematician David Hilbert that: “There is a vast number of

anecdotes about him…” (p.186).

Well, here is a web site full of Hilbert quotes and anecdotes:

I have a problem with math anecdotes, actually. If you read that Hilbert

page, you will see that only a few of them are much good. Well, after P.O.

came out I got a couple of reader responses along the lines: “I liked the

anecdotes about mathematicians, but they were the same ones I heard from my

own lecturers.”

Well, yes. Mathematicians are a dry lot for the most part, and the number

of good math anecdotes is pretty small. I think I “spent” all the best ones

in P.O. Now I’ve engaged to write another pop-math book, and have no decent

anecdotes left to season it with. So if any reader has good, but

little-known, humanizing stories about mathematicians, I’d appreciate them.

Subject line MATH ANECDOTES, please.