The Practical Man

Over at Physics Today, a look at the notebooks of Richard Feynman, and a mention of a series of books that helped him to conquer calculus. The book series Mathematics for the Practical Man or Mathematics for Self-Study by J.E. Thompson was a five-volume set mentioned by Feynman in some of his autobiographical writing. I was lucky enough to find a hardcover set several years ago. This is the sort of thing that is out of copyright, out of print, probably is better than many current texts, so ought to be brought back into print (in paper and electronic formats). Good stuff!

(The author also wrote a book about the venerable slide rule!)