Halmos PDF
Halmos PDF
Paul Halmos died on October 2, 2006, at the age of 90. After his death, many people wrote about his
career and praised both his mathematical and his expository skills. Paul would have complained about
that: He often said he could smell great mathematicians, and he himself was not one of them.
But he was wrong. He was a master of mathematics in multiple ways, and he influenced math-
ematicians and mathematical culture throughout his career. Unlike most other master mathemati-
cians, Pauls legacy was not merely mathematics but rather advice and opinion about mathematical
lifewriting, publishing, speaking, research, or even thinking about mathematics. Paul wrote about
each of these topics with an extraordinary mixture of conviction and humility. Mathematicians paid
attention to what he wrote, and they often quoted it (and still doevery talk ought to have one
proof). They disagreed and frequently wrote rebuttals. They passed along his wisdom to their stu-
dents, who passed it along to theirs. Paul Halmoss writing affected the professional lives of nearly
every mathematician in the latter half of the twentieth century, and it will continue to influence the
profession for years to come.
How does one write about great writing? Explanations of great exposition always fall flat, like
analyses of great poems or elucidations of famous paintings. Art is best exhibited, not explained.
And so here is a collection of excerpts from the writing of Paul Halmos, giving advice, offering
opinions, or merely contemplating life as a mathematicianall in his own words.
J. E.
On Writing born with it are not usually born with full knowl-
edge of all the tricks of the trade. A few essays
Excerpts from:
such as this may serve to remind (in the sense of
How to write mathematics, Enseign. Math. (2)
Plato) the ones who want to be and are destined to
16 (1970), 123152.
be the expositors of the future of the techniques
I think I can tell someone how to write, but I
found useful by the expositors of the past.
cant think who would want to listen. The ability
The basic problem in writing mathematics is
to communicate effectively, the power to be intel-
the same as in writing biology, writing a novel, or
ligible, is congenital, I believe, or, in any event,
writing directions for assembling a harpsichord:
it is so early acquired that by the time someone
the problem is to communicate an idea. To do
reads my wisdom on the subject he is likely to be
so, and to do it clearly, you must have something
invariant under it. To understand a syllogism is
to say, and you must have someone to say it to,
not something you can learn; you are either born
you must organize what you want to say, and you
with the ability or you are not. In the same way,
must arrange it in the order you want it said in,
effective exposition is not a teachable art; some can
you must write it, rewrite it, and re-rewrite it sev-
do it and some cannot. There is no usable recipe
eral times, and you must be willing to think hard
for good writing.
about and work hard on mechanical details such
Then why go on? A small reason is the hope that
as diction, notation, and punctuation. Thats all
what I said isnt quite right; and, anyway, Id like a
there is to it.
chance to try to do what perhaps cannot be done. A
It might seem unnecessary to insist that in order
more practical reason is that in the other arts that
to say something well you must have something to
require innate talent, even the gifted ones who are
say, but its no joke. Much bad writing, mathemati-
This article was prepared and edited by John Ewing, cal and otherwise, is caused by a violation of that
executive director of the AMS. His email address is jhe@ first principle. Just as there are two ways for a
ams.org. sequence not to have a limit (no cluster points or
On Being a Mathematician
Excerpt from:
I Want to Be a Mathematician, p. 400, Springer-
Verlag, New York (1985)
It takes a long time to learn to liveby the time
you learn your time is gone. I spent most of a life-
time trying to be a mathematicianand what did I
learn? What does it take to be one? I think I know
the answer: you have to be born right, you must
continually strive to become perfect, you must love
mathematics more than anything else.
Born right? Yes. To be a scholar of mathematics
you must be born with talent, insight, concentra-
tion, taste, luck, drive, and the ability to visualize
and guess. For teaching you must in addition
understand what kinds of obstacles learners are
likely to place before themselves, and you must
have sympathy for your audience, dedicated self-
lessness, verbal ability, clear style, and expository
skill. To be able, finally, to pull your weight in the