The world of mathematics

I found this book (again) after reading an excerpt written by H. L. Gold, who describes this book:

> All this and much more I got from an overwhelming kind of book published by Simon & Schuster. The name of it is *The World of Mathematics* and it comes in four volumes, boxed, more that 2,500 stunning pages. Besides chapters on every sort of math proper, there are biographies of the greatest mathematicians, from Ah-mosé, the Egyptian scribe, to the present day - the flyleaf of the book says "To Einstein," but it goes beyond him.
> If time travel existed, I can think of few worthier, or more predictably successful uses, than to send this book back half a century to the lonely, unloved genius of Madras. The world would benefit beyond imagination...