To keep the interest of readers, the book typically focuses on unusual or dramatic aspects of its subjects' lives.

Men of Mathematics has inspired many young people, including John Forbes Nash Jr., Julia Robinson, and Freeman Dyson, to become mathematicians.

In July 1935, Bell signed a contract with Simon and Schuster, for a book to be titled The Lives of Mathematicians.

In the opinion of Ivor Grattan-Guinness the mathematics profession was poorly served by Bell's book: Eric Bell was criticized in 1983 for incorrectly ascribing the origin of spacetime to Joseph Lagrange: In reviewing the faculty that served with Harry Bateman at Caltech, Clifford Truesdell wrote: An impression of the book was given by Rebecca Goldstein in her novel 36 Arguments for the Existence of God.

Describing a character Cass Seltzer, she wrote on page 105: Theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson called his encounter with the book one of the decisive moments in his early career path, noting its ability to present famous mathematicians not as saints, but as flawed individuals of mixed qualities who nevertheless accomplished great mathematics.