It is my name on the front of this book, but there are many more people without whom this book would not exist. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.
First and foremost, I must thank my editor, Vickie Kearn. Her calm presence and encouraging words meant a lot to me as I wrote this, my first book. She and the entire staff at Princeton University Press were wonderful to work with.
It would have been impossible for me to write this book without knowing exactly what Euler wrote. I am extremely grateful to Chris Francese for helping me translate Euler’s paper from the original Latin. Also, Anne Maiale, Tony Mixell, Sandra Alfers, Wolfgang Müller, and Lucile Duperron were helpful to me in getting other translations precisely right.
I appreciate Rich Klein, Ed Sandifer, Paul Nahin, Klaus Peters, Karl Qualls, my parents Gail and Frank Richeson, and the anonymous readers chosen by the publisher for reading all or part of my manuscript. The thoughtful comments of these experts and non-experts made this a much better book. I must also thank my copy editor Lyman Lyons for his careful editing of my manuscript and his many suggestions for improving the writing.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife Becky and children Ben and Nora, who put up with the many extra hours I spent working on this book.