Reminiscences of Paul Erdös

Erdös was born in Budapest in 1913 of parents who were Jewish intellectuals. His brilliance was evident by the time he was three years old. For this reason, and perhaps because two older sisters died of scarlet fever shortly before he was born, his parents shielded him almost completely from the everyday problems of life. For example, he never had to tie his own shoelaces until he was 14 years old, and never buttered his own toast until he was 21 years old in Cambridge, England. In return for the freedom to concentrate almost exclusively on intellectual pursuits, he paid the price of not learning the social skills that are expected of all of us and usually acquired in childhood.