Jan Gullberg  Jan Gullberg (1936 – 21 May 1998) was a Swedish surgeon and anaesthesiologist, but became known as a writer on popular science and medical topics. He is best known outside Sweden as the author of "Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers", published by W. W. Norton in 1997 (). Gullberg grew up and was trained as a surgeon in Sweden. He qualified in medicine at the University of Lund in 1964. He practised as a surgeon in Saudi Arabia, Norway and Virginia Mason Hospital, Seattle in the United States, as well as in Sweden. Gullberg saw himself as a doctor rather than a writer. His first book, on science, won the Swedish Medical Society's Jubilee Prize in 1980, and saw him promoted to honorary doctor at the University of Lund the same year. He was twice married: first to Anne-Marie Hallin (d. 1983), with whom he had three children; and Ann, with whom he adopted two sons. He died of a stroke in Nordfjordeid, Norway at the hospital where he was working. Gullberg's second (and last) book, "Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers", took ten years to write, consuming all of his spare time. It proved a major success; its first edition of 17,000 copies was virtually sold out within six months. The book's 1093 pages address the following topics:     Arnold Allen, reviewing "Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers" in "The American Mathematical Monthly", wrote that although there were many worthy books that could claim the title of people's guide to mathematics, "Gullberg's book is clearly the overall winner. ... It is a wonderful read. I take it with me everywhere I go." Allen says the book has "special charm", making innovative use of the margin and providing "excellent quotes and quips" throughout. His favourite chapter is "Cornerstones of Mathematics" which he believes should appeal both to beginners and "old hands". He professes himself amazed at Gullberg's revelation of an alternative pencil-and-paper method of multiplication from the one we all learned at school, namely the Egyptian method of duplation, and loves the "Russian peasant" multiplication method involving "successive duplation and mediation". He admires the "efficient" Babylonian method of finding square roots, using division and averaging. He learns from Gullberg how to multiply and divide using an abacus.