'ERDöS, PAUL (PáL)'(b. Budapest, Hungary, 26 March 1923; d. Warsaw, Poland, 20 September 1996), mathematics, number theory.

Erdos was a mathematical hermit, and a hero of sorts to about half the mathematical community. The rest tolerated his eccentricities, because Erdos was a man who loved only numbers.

> Erdös spoke of the world in a private language that reflected his cosseted upbringing. Thus SF (for Supreme Fascist) was his name for God, whom he regarded as a malign deity he believed had created the universe and tormented people; “epsilon” (traditionally a very small quantity in mathematics) was his name for a child—Erdös was very fond of children; and “bosses” his name for women, with whom he was less comfortable and who occasionally protested at the way people attracted to the cult around Erdös glossed over the sexism inherent in the term. Men were called “slaves” and people who had given up mathematics were said to have “died.” Erdös often spoke of what he called “The Book,” supposedly in the possession of the SF, in which were collected all the best proofs of all the important results in

mathematics, and which it was the job of mathematicians to discover. After his death mathematicians began to publish a book called Proofs from the Book, a compilation of exceptionally elegant proofs of various results.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/mathematics-biographies/paul-erdos