ABSTRACT
What kinds of people are these mathematicians? These people who do mathematics not just to check the supermarket checkout slips on occasion or to review carefully the ads from the new bank credit card, and not just to look with a mathematical perspective at things in general, but who have chosen as their life’s work to do mathematical research, to solve mathematical problems, to wrack their brains at mathematical conundrums. There are many stories that one can tell about these people (and their achievements), many of them true, as well as charming anecdotes and thrilling legendsand often all of these mixed together as in all historiography.
