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I. Student.- 1 Reading and writing and' rithmetic.- Words.- Books.- Writing.- Languages.- Numbers.- Study or worry.- Learning English.- High school.- 2 A college education.- Move to Chambana.- How not to be a freshman.- Trig and analyt.- Calculus, and is there a doctor on the faculty'.- Elementary mathematics and culture.- Mathematical daydreams and BARBARA.- All Gaul.- A Bachelor of Science.- 3 Graduate school.- Statistics.- The end of the affair.- Matrices.- The Dean.- First class.- Hazlett and Netzorg.- Good morning, analysis.- Why geometry'.- 4 Learning to study.- Doob arrives.- All work and politics.- Born again.- Other forces, other tongues.- Prelims.- For example.- Statistics, no.- Readings and ratings.- Reprints: Doob's and others'.- Study.- 5 Learning to think.- Optional skipping.- Roller coaster.- Jobs, no.- On my own.- The end of an era.- 6 The Institute.- The common room.- The center of the world.- Insignificant people.- Work.- Work and between work.- A weak paper and a pretty good book.- Collaboration.- Measures and Harvard.- Classical mechanics.- Birthdays.- 7 Winning the war.- Back home in Illinois.- Meetings.- Teaching at Syracuse.- Research at Syracuse.- Radiation Laboratory.- Referee and review.- From Syracuse to Chicago.- II. Scholar.- 8 A great university.- Eckhart Hall.- Days of glory.- What makes a great university'.- Teaching.- Students and visitors.- 9 The early years.- Guggenheim.- Measure Theory.- Master's exams.- Judgments.- Jimmie Savage.- Students and courses.- The beginning of Hilbert space.- Ph.D. students.- The Cambridge Congress.- Follow the sun.- 10 Montevideo.- Where to go'.- Saturation in Spanish.- Room and board.- Weather and climate.- How to get a chair.- Humanities and sciences.- Faculty of engineering.- Instituto de Matemca.- Institute people.- Teaching in Montevideo.- Research in Uruguay.- Spy, junior grade.- Small memories.- 11 The fabulous fifties.- Back home.- Is formal logic mathematics'.- Boolean logic.- The road to polyadic algebras.- All logic and all mathematics.- Logic students and logicians.- The passport saga.- Service.- Editing.- How to be a big shot.- How to be an editor.- Recent progress in ergodic theory.- Writing for a living.- The Institute again.- Boolean algebras and sets.- Farewell.- III. Senior.- 12 How to teach.- Shifting gears.- The Moore method.- Moore and covering material.- How to be a pro.- Musings on teaching.- How to supervise.- More Ph.D. students.- 13 To Sydney, to Moscow, and back.- Sydney 1964.- Budapest 1964.- Scotland 1965.- Tourist in Moscow and Leningrad.- Life with Anosov.- Fomin and Gelfand.- Mathematicians in Moscow.- As others see us.- 14 How to do almost everything.- Rejections.- How to do research.- The invariant subspace problem.- Friends can help.- How to recommend.- How to advise.- Honolulu, here I come!.- 15 Service, one way or another.- Democracy ad absurdum.- How to be a chairman.- How not to be a chairman.- Life in Bloomington.- Indiana students.- Committees of one : Wabash.- Committees of one : Bulletin.- The Monthly.- Here and there.- How to write mathematics.- How to write about von Neumann.- How to write history'.- Coda How to be a mathematician.- Index of Photographs.… (more)

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I Want to Be a Mathematician: An Automathography by P. R. Halmos

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I really enjoyed this book because Halmos focuses a lot on the events/interests he has on the periphery of mathematics. A lot of mathematician's autobiographies are extremely math-centric, focusing only on the events building up to finding an important result. This book provided a more holistic perspective on the life of a mathematician. Topics discussed range from getting distracted by poker and billiards during his graduate career to very candid descriptions of his feelings towards not getting granted a fellowship during graduate school. It read like a slice-of-life anime, which I love.

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joiewu | Mar 21, 2022 |

I don't think my words of praise would do justice to this wonderful book. Halmos has strong opinions almost about everything and the way he talks about his examples are very wise. You don't need to be a would-be mathematician to enjoy the book. If you have ever wondered or invested some time in the world of mathematics, science and academia, Halmos provides you a very good account. If you are more than interested in math or maybe thinking about pursuing a Ph.D. this book will be much more valuable for you.

There are so many parts to be quoted from the book but I prefer to start a Wikiquote page for Halmos and pour sentences there. Halmos may not be one of the greats (according to his words) such as Euler, Gauss, Riemann, etc. but he is probably the greatest writer of such books.

All along the book I had a feeling: it was more like a frank and witty dialogue between me and the great mathematician (and lecturer) who had been there and done that. I kept on asking questions and Halmos kept on giving answers.

Thank you Mr. Halmos, for having wanted to be a mathematician, having been one of the best and having written such a nice book on what it was all about. (

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EmreSevinc | Jun 12, 2009 |

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To Ambrose, Doob and von Neumann who,

without knowing it, made me what I am today.

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This is an automathograpy, a mathematical biography written by its subject.

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I. Student.- 1 Reading and writing and' rithmetic.- Words.- Books.- Writing.- Languages.- Numbers.- Study or worry.- Learning English.- High school.- 2 A college education.- Move to Chambana.- How not to be a freshman.- Trig and analyt.- Calculus, and is there a doctor on the faculty'.- Elementary mathematics and culture.- Mathematical daydreams and BARBARA.- All Gaul.- A Bachelor of Science.- 3 Graduate school.- Statistics.- The end of the affair.- Matrices.- The Dean.- First class.- Hazlett and Netzorg.- Good morning, analysis.- Why geometry'.- 4 Learning to study.- Doob arrives.- All work and politics.- Born again.- Other forces, other tongues.- Prelims.- For example.- Statistics, no.- Readings and ratings.- Reprints: Doob's and others'.- Study.- 5 Learning to think.- Optional skipping.- Roller coaster.- Jobs, no.- On my own.- The end of an era.- 6 The Institute.- The common room.- The center of the world.- Insignificant people.- Work.- Work and between work.- A weak paper and a pretty good book.- Collaboration.- Measures and Harvard.- Classical mechanics.- Birthdays.- 7 Winning the war.- Back home in Illinois.- Meetings.- Teaching at Syracuse.- Research at Syracuse.- Radiation Laboratory.- Referee and review.- From Syracuse to Chicago.- II. Scholar.- 8 A great university.- Eckhart Hall.- Days of glory.- What makes a great university'.- Teaching.- Students and visitors.- 9 The early years.- Guggenheim.- Measure Theory.- Master's exams.- Judgments.- Jimmie Savage.- Students and courses.- The beginning of Hilbert space.- Ph.D. students.- The Cambridge Congress.- Follow the sun.- 10 Montevideo.- Where to go'.- Saturation in Spanish.- Room and board.- Weather and climate.- How to get a chair.- Humanities and sciences.- Faculty of engineering.- Instituto de Matemca.- Institute people.- Teaching in Montevideo.- Research in Uruguay.- Spy, junior grade.- Small memories.- 11 The fabulous fifties.- Back home.- Is formal logic mathematics'.- Boolean logic.- The road to polyadic algebras.- All logic and all mathematics.- Logic students and logicians.- The passport saga.- Service.- Editing.- How to be a big shot.- How to be an editor.- Recent progress in ergodic theory.- Writing for a living.- The Institute again.- Boolean algebras and sets.- Farewell.- III. Senior.- 12 How to teach.- Shifting gears.- The Moore method.- Moore and covering material.- How to be a pro.- Musings on teaching.- How to supervise.- More Ph.D. students.- 13 To Sydney, to Moscow, and back.- Sydney 1964.- Budapest 1964.- Scotland 1965.- Tourist in Moscow and Leningrad.- Life with Anosov.- Fomin and Gelfand.- Mathematicians in Moscow.- As others see us.- 14 How to do almost everything.- Rejections.- How to do research.- The invariant subspace problem.- Friends can help.- How to recommend.- How to advise.- Honolulu, here I come!.- 15 Service, one way or another.- Democracy ad absurdum.- How to be a chairman.- How not to be a chairman.- Life in Bloomington.- Indiana students.- Committees of one : Wabash.- Committees of one : Bulletin.- The Monthly.- Here and there.- How to write mathematics.- How to write about von Neumann.- How to write history'.- Coda How to be a mathematician.- Index of Photographs.

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