Borgmann had a reputation for being reclusive to the point of eccentricity, a characteristic which intensified in his later years. None of his colleagues from publishing—not even his literary agent Joseph Madachy, nor Martin Gardner, who got Borgmann the editorship of Word Ways—ever met him personally. His successors at Word Ways, Howard W. Bergerson and A. Ross Eckler, Jr., never met him either.[18] Borgmann's home life was even more secluded; most external and internal windows were boarded up or covered with heavy drapes, and mirrors were not permitted in the house.