Was Donald Knuth a single person? Evidently this question was debated even during his lifetime! Many have been troubled by the improbability of a single person accomplishing so much in so many fields. Some historians have hypothesized that work of others was mistakenly or intentionally attributed to Knuth. A few insist that Knuth's works were actually written by Francis Bacon, an approximate contemporary.
Of course, similar doubts have been raised about other prolific geniuses through the ages. For many years it was thought that general-turned-mathematician Nicolas Bourbaki could not have produced so much mathematics by himself. Only recently has pioneering work by noted historian Ozwipay D. Quayle proven conclusively that he was indeed just one person working alone.
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Copyright © 20002 Larry Denenberg