The Mathematics of Paul Erdös I

In 1992, when Paul Erdos was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa by Charles University in Prague, a small conference was held, bringing together a distin guished group of researchers with interests spanning a variety of fields related to Erdos' own work. At that gathering, the idea occurred to several of us that it might be quite appropriate at this point in Erdos' career to solicit a col lection of articles illustrating various aspects of Erdos' mathematical life and work. The response to our solicitation was immediate and overwhelming, and these volumes are the result. Regarding the organization, we found it convenient to arrange the papers into six chapters, each mirroring Erdos' holistic approach to mathematics. Our goal was not merely a (random) collection of papers but rather a thor oughly edited volume composed in large part by articles explicitly solicited to illustrate interesting aspects of Erdos and his life and work. Each chap ter includes an introduction which often presents a sample of related ErdOs' problems "in his own words". All these (sometimes lengthy) introductions were written jointly by editors. We wish to thank the nearly 70 contributors for their outstanding efforts (and their patience). In particular, we are grateful to Bela Bollobas for his extensive documentation of Paul Erdos' early years and mathematical high points (in the first part of this volume); our other authors are acknowledged in their respective chapters. We also want to thank A. Bondy, G. Hahn, I.