Raymond Smullyan received his PhD from Princeton University and has taught at Dartmouth, Princeton, Indiana University, and New York's Lehman College. Best known for his mathematical and creative logic puzzles and games, he is also a concert pianist and a magician. He is the author of over a dozen books of logic puzzles and texts on mathematical logic. From the cover of Four Lives : Born in 1919 in Far Rockaway, New York, Raymond Smullyan received his BSc from the University of Chicago and his PhD from Princeton University. He has taught at Dartmouth, Princeton, Indiana University, and New York's Lehman College. Best known for his mathematical and creative logic puzzles and games, he is also a concert pianist and a magician. Jason Rosenhouse is an associate professor of mathematics at James Madison University in Virginia. He is the author of three previous books: The Monty Hall Problem: The Remarkable Story of Math's Most Contentious Brainteaser; Taking Sudoku Seriously: The Math Behind the World's Most Popular Pencil Puzzle; and Among the Creationists: Dispatches from the Anti-Evolutionist Front Line.

He has been a fan of Raymond Smullyan since stumbling upon his work in elementary school.