N Is a Number A Portrait of Paul Erdös (1993)

In an age when genius is a mere commodity it is useful to look at a person who led a rich life without the traditional trappings of success A man with no home and no job Paul Erdös was the most prolific mathematician who ever lived Born in Hungary in 1913 Erdös wrote and coauthored over 1500 papers and pioneered several fields in theoretical mathematics At the age of 83 he still spent most of his time on the road going from math meeting to math meeting continually working on problems He died on September 20 1996 while attending such a meeting in Warsaw Poland