William Poundstone is the author of ten books, most recently Fortune’s Formula (Hill and Wang). He lives in Los Angeles and is interested in outsider literature.

• September 2006: Get Off the Earth
  Sam Loyd’s 1896 advertising puzzle relied on a misregistered lithograph—and racial stereotypes—to acheive its illusion.
• September 2004: The Dreamlife of William Poundstone
  Seemingly brilliant ideas that occur to the slumbering author have no merit whatsoever in the morning.