Theory of Finite and Infinite Graphs [ With 112 Illustrations ]

König, Denes [ Translated by Richard McCoart, With Commentary by W. T. Tutte ]

ISBN 10: 0817633898 / ISBN 13: 9780817633899

Published by Birkhäuser, Boston, 1990

About this Item

A fine copy of the first hard cover edition, first printing (full number line) lacking a dust-jacket, no doubt as issued. The text is wholly unmarked, pristine, and the binding bright and fresh in appearance. A brilliant copy.

Seller Inventory # 019848

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Theory of Finite and Infinite Graphs [ With 112 Illustrations ]
• Publisher: Birkhäuser, Boston
• Publication Date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0817633898
• ISBN 13: 9780817633899
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

About this title

Synopsis

To most graph theorists there are two outstanding landmarks in the history of their subject. One is Euler's solution of the Konigsberg Bridges Problem, dated 1736, and the other is the appearance of Denes Konig's textbook in 1936. "From Konigsberg to Konig's book" sings the poetess, "So runs the graphic tale ..." [10]. There were earlier books that took note of graph theory. Veb- len's Analysis Situs, published in 1931, is about general combinato- rial topology. But its first two chapters, on "Linear graphs" and "Two-Dimensional Complexes", are almost exclusively concerned with the territory still explored by graph theorists. Rouse Ball's Mathematical Recreations and Essays told, usually without proofs, of the major graph-theoretical advances ofthe nineteenth century, of the Five Colour Theorem, of Petersen's Theorem on I-factors, and of Cayley's enumerations of trees. It was Rouse Ball's book that kindled my own graph-theoretical enthusiasm. The graph-theoretical papers of Hassler Whitney, published in 1931-1933, would have made an excellent textbook in English had they been collected and published as such. But the honour of presenting Graph Theory to the mathe- matical world as a subject in its own right, with its own textbook, belongs to Denes Konig. Low was the prestige of Graph Theory in the Dirty Thirties. It is still remembered, with resentment now shading into amuse- ment, how one mathematician scorned it as "The slums of Topol- ogy".

Synopsis

Originally published in 1936, "Theorie der endlichen und unendlichen Graphen", by the Hungarian mathematician Denes Koenig, was the first book on graph theory. Now available in English, the book is not only of historical interest, but also provides an introduction to a subject that has become increasingly important in recent years, largely due to its applications to computer science. The additional commentary discusses the background of graph theory and later developments, putting the work in its historical perspective.