This text offers a biography of James Joseph Sylvester & his work. A Cambridge student at first denied a degree because of his faith, Sylvester came to America to teach mathematics, becoming Daniel Coit Gilman's faculty recruit at Johns Hopkins in 1876 & winning the coveted Savilian Professorship of Geometry at Oxford in 1883.

First published in 1976, this book has been widely acclaimed as a major and enlivening contribution to the history of mathematics. The updated and corrected paperback contains extracts from the original writings of mathematicians who contributed to the foundations of graph theory. The author's commentary links each piece historically and frames the whole with explanations of the relevant mathematical terminology and notation.

Upon publication, the first edition of the CRC Concise Encyclopedia of Mathematics received overwhelming accolades for its unparalleled scope, readability, and utility. It soon took its place among the top selling books in the history of Chapman & Hall/CRC, and its popularity continues unabated. Yet also unabated has been the d