Editing John Horton Conway (section)

==Conway and Martin Gardner==
Conway's career was intertwined with that of [[Martin Gardner]]. When Gardner featured [[Conway's Game of Life]] in his [[Mathematical Games column]] in October 1970, it became the most widely read of all his columns and made Conway an instant celebrity.<ref>Mulcahy, Colm (21 October 2014) ''[https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29688355 Martin Gardner, puzzle master extraordinaire]'', ''[[BBC News Magazine]]'': "The Game of Life appeared in Scientific American in 1970, and was by far the most successful of Gardner's columns, in terms of reader response."</ref><ref name=Mulcahy/> Gardner and Conway had first corresponded in the late 1950s, and over the years Gardner had frequently written about recreational aspects of Conway's work.<ref>[http://mathfactor.uark.edu/2010/06/ha-conway-on-gardner/ The Math Factor Podcast Website] John H. Conway reminisces on his long friendship and collaboration with Martin Gardner.</ref> For instance, he discussed Conway's game of [[Sprouts (game)|Sprouts]] (July 1967), [[Hackenbush]] (January 1972), and his [[Angel problem|angel and devil problem]] (February 1974). In the September 1976 column, he reviewed Conway's book ''[[On Numbers and Games]]'' and even managed to explain Conway's [[surreal numbers]].<ref>Gardner, Martin (1989) ''Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers'', W. H. Freeman & Co., {{ISBN|0-7167-1987-8}}, Chapter 4. A non-technical overview; reprint of the 1976 Scientific American article.</ref>

Conway was a prominent member of [[Martin Gardner#Gardner's mathematical grapevine|Martin Gardner's Mathematical Grapevine]]. He regularly visited Gardner and often wrote him long letters summarizing his recreational research. In a 1976 visit, Gardner kept him for a week, pumping him for information on the [[Penrose tiling]]s which had just been announced. Conway had discovered many (if not most) of the major properties of the tilings.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.ams.org/notices/200506/fea-gardner.pdf |title=Interview with Martin Gardner|journal=Notices of the AMS|volume=52|issue=6|date=2005|pages=602–611|author=Jackson, Allyn }}</ref> Gardner used these results when he introduced the world to Penrose tiles in his January 1977 column.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/john-conways-life-in-games-20150828/ |title=A Life In Games: The Playful Genius of John Conway|author=Roberts, Siobhan |journal=Quanta Magazine|date=28 August 2015}}</ref> The cover of that issue of ''Scientific American'' features the Penrose tiles and is based on a sketch by Conway.<ref name=Mulcahy/>