Stephen smale is one of the great mathematicians of the 20th century. His work encompasses a wide variety of subjects: differential topology, dynamical systems, calculus of variations, theory of computation, mechanics and mathematical economy. In all these subjects he has left the imprint of collection of fundamental results. He has obtain several distinctions, including the Fields Medal, he Veblen Prize, the Chauvenet Prize, the von Neumann Award and the National Medal of Science.

This invaluable book contains the collected papers of Stephen Smale. These are divided into eight groups: topology; calculus of variations; dynamics; mechanics; economics; biology, electric circuits and mathematical programming; theory of computation; miscellaneous. In addition, each group contains one or two articles by world leaders on its subject which comment on the influence of Smale's work, and another article by Smale with his one retrospective views.