During a lecture in 1985, Erdős said, "You don't have to believe in God, but you should believe in The Book.

Erdős himself made many suggestions for the book, but died before its publication.

The book is illustrated by Karl Heinrich Hofmann [de].

It has gone through six editions in English, and has been translated into Persian, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Korean, Turkish, Russian, Spanish and Greek.

In November 2017 the American Mathematical Society announced the 2018 Leroy P. Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition to be awarded to Aigner and Ziegler for this book.