There was a gentleman from the Netherlands named Eugene Strens who had collected over two thousand items, mostly recreational mathematics books. When Mr Strens died, his family was interested in selling his collection. They called Martin and asked if he knew anyone who would be interested in such a collection. Martin said he called a few people he knew, one of which was Richard Guy. Dr Guy is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Calgary and someone Martin describes as "one of the best number theorists in the world". (Also one of the authors of one of my favourite sets of books called Winning Ways) Well, Martin says that as soon as Dr Guy heard that the collection was up for sale, he flew immediately to the Netherlands and got the collection. Martin said it was a real treasure that Canada has come to have due to Dr. Guy's quick reaction. Martin said that the collection even holds some of Henery Ernest Dudeney's original scrapbooks.
So I was amazed. I had actually met Richard and his lovely wife, Louise, in 2004 when I attended the SNAP Math Fairs Conference in Banff. I had met the wonderful Paul Vanderlind here and after the conference we were dropping Paul off at Richard's house (they were collaborating on a book at the time) and Richard and Louise invited us all in for tea. I remember
them being such a warm and friendly couple. They were a couple one dreams of being many years down the road, very evidently important to one another. It was a lovely visit I never forgot. Richard and Louise were very kind and welcoming.
So when Martin told me about Strens, I thought I would like to see the collection on my next visit back to Banff (a conference I speak at each year). So I contacted Richard and asked if I could come visit him and see the collection. He said absolutely and made arrangements for us to meet.
So on my way to the conference, I went to U of Calgary and met with Richard. He took me over to the MacKimmie Library, we met with the curator (she was lovely but I forget her name) and she took us back to the stacks. There Richard showed me the collection, highlighting some real gems. These are some of the photos from my visit.
Here are Richard and I standing in front of one of the stacks in the collection.
A wonderful picture of Richard in front of a collection of Ladies Diary and Gentleman's Diary from the early 1800's.
This is Richard holding Sam Lloyd's Cyclopedia. This was a real thrill for me to see this book. I have books by Sam Lloyd, and have read about the Cyclopedia, but had never seen one before.
Eugene Strens was a friend with the mathematical artist, M.C.Escher. And in Mr Strens books, he has these beautiful book plates made by his friend Escher. There are many different book plates by Escher. These bookplates are worth looking at!
This is a beautiful Escher that is in the Strens Collection.So this visit was a real thrill for me to see. I was in heaven to see all these books (I collect these type myself) and could have spent weeks in there! So many books, so little time! I was generously allowed to stay and peruse for a few hours and to touch and go through so many amazing books that I have only "heard" of and many I wished I had in my own collection! There were even puzzles and games in the collection as well. There were also many additional donations that have been made to the collection. Martin himself had donated many foreign books from his own collection. Other donations were made by Charles W. Trigg, Wade Philpott, Alan R. Ness, Harry L. Nelson, Victor Meally, C.M.Jones, Leon Bankoff.
Here is the link to Strens:
http://www.ucalgary.ca/lib-old/SpecColl/strens.htm
After Strens, we went back to Richard's office and he invited me to look and peruse his own collection. Here are a couple of snapshots from my visit to his office.
When I was waiting for Richard at the start of my visit, I thought I would strategically wait near the elevators. If I remember correctly, his office is on the 3rd or 4th floor. I was waiting when one of the secretaries came by and before she got on the elevator said, "You're waiting for Dr Guy aren't you?" I said I was and she said his office door was now open. I looked down the hallway and looked puzzled, thinking, "How did I miss him?". She smiled and said, "He usually takes the stairs. He's very fit." This made sense to me. I remember reading in Crux that even though he's now 91 yeard old, he still climbs mountains.
So it was a thrilling visit to see an incredible collection hosted by a wonderful gentleman! I was indeed in the presence of Greatness!
And this was only my first of a three day visit to Alberta! After this I hopped on a bus back to the airport to meet up with Bill Ritchie, Scott Kim and Lily Yen. Wow, in the presence of greatness again! We rode together to Banff where we attended the SNAP Conference with Andy Liu, Ted Lewis, Tiina Hohn, Jim Timourian, Wen-Hsien Sun and so many wonderful teachers. But I'll have to save this story for another time.
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