Four Lives

Raymond Merrill Smullyan was born in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York on May 25, 1919. He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He taught at Princeton, Yeshiva University, Lehman College of the City University of New York, and Indiana University. He also performed magic under the stage name Five-Ace Merrill at nightclubs like the Pump Room in Chicago.

He was a puzzle-creating logician who wrote many books including The Chess Mysteries of the Arabian Knights, The Lady or the Tiger?: And Other Logic Puzzles, Alice in Puzzle-Land: A Carrollian Tale for Children, and The Magic Garden of George B and Other Logic Puzzles. He died on February 6, 2017 at the age of 97.

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