Henry Ernest Dudeney (the last name is pronounced with a long "u" and a strong accent
on the first syllable, as in "scrutiny") was England's greatest maker of puzzles. With
respect to mathematical puzzles, especially problems of more than trivial mathematical
interest, the quantity and quality of his output surpassed that of any other puzzlist
before or since, in or out of England. Dudeney was born at Mayfield, in Susxxx,
on April 10, 1857, the son of a local schoolmaster. His father's father, John Dudeney,
was well known in Susxxx as a shepherd who had taught himself mathematics and astronomy
while tending sheep on the downs above Lewes, a town fifty miles south of London. Later
he became a schoolmaster in Lewes. Henry Dudeney, himself a self-taught mathematician
who never went to college, was understandably proud to be the grandson of this famous
shepherd-mathematician.

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