It was written by Helen Abbot Merrill, published in 1933 by the Norwood Press,[1][2][3][4][5] and reprinted (posthumously) by Dover Publications in 1957.
[2][5][6] The book is written for a general audience,[1] and is intended to spark the interest of high school students in mathematics.
[4] In general, only high school levels of algebra and geometry are needed to appreciate the book and solve its problems.
[5] Of the original edition, reviewer David Eugene Smith wrote "the book ought to be in the hands of all teachers and on the shelves of all high schools and colleges".
[3] By the time of the 1957 reprint, reviewer Samuel L. Greitzer complained about its obsolete notation, as well as its uneven level of exposition and non-uniform inclusion of solutions to problems,[6] and reviewer Roland Sprague noted that its treatment of perfect numbers was out of date.