Covering a period up to 1971 this selection of Saunders Mac Lane's most distinguished papers
takes the reader on a journey through the most important milestones of the mathematical world
in the twentieth century. Mac Lane was an extraordinary mathematician and a dedicated teacher
who cared earnestly about the values of science and education. His life spanned nearly a
century of mathematical progress. In his earlier years he participated in the exciting
developments in Göttingen. He studied under David Hilbert Hermann Weyl and Paul Bernays.
Later he contributed to the more abstract and general mathematical viewpoints which emerged in
the twentieth century. Perhaps the most outstanding accomplishment during his long and
extraordinary career was the development of the concept and theory of categories together with
Samuel Eilenberg which has broad applications in different areas in particular in topology
and the foundations of mathematics.
