The Artist and the Mathematician

"A real-life mathematical mystery Nicolas Bourbaki was perhaps the greatest mathematician of the twentieth century. Responsible for the emergence of the "new math" that swept through American and foreign education systems in the middle of the century, Bourbaki originated the modern concept of the mathematical proof and is credited with the introduction of rigor into the discipline. It can be said that no working mathematician in the world today is free of the influence of Nicolas Bourbaki's seminal work." "This is the story of both Bourbaki and the world that created him. And it is the story of an elaborate intellectual joke - because Bourbaki, the author of dozens of acclaimed papers and one of the foremost mathematicians of his day - never existed."--Jacket.