As befits a book on recreational mathematics, this one has been great fun to write, in part because I let my curiosity lead the way. It was a revelation to survey the original puzzle columns of Dudeney in The Strand Magazine of the 1910s and 1920s. It was fascinating to dig out even earlier references and make connections that other authors had missed. It was intriguing to collect biographical information on the people who have made a contribution to this area.

I hope that the book will also be great fun to read. The intended audience is anyone who has had a course in high school geometry and thought that regular hexagons were rather pretty. I have used some other high school math here and there. If you find some of the formulas tough sledding, you should be able to skip over them without much lost. Likewise, if you skip over the algorithmlike descriptions of methods in Chapters 7–9, you won't lose much but can be comforted that precise descriptions do exist. On the other hand, if you get intrigued with some topic and want to follow up on it, I have provided additional comments and references, ordered by chapter, in the Afterword.

It has been a surprise to see how many people have contributed to whatever success this book may enjoy. First are those who have produced new dissections, in quality and quantity substantially greater than I had imagined. I gratefully acknowledge the permission of Duilio Carpitella, Anton Hanegraaf, Bernard Lemaire, David Paterson, Robert Reid, Gavin Theobald, and Alfred Varsady to reproduce their unpublished or privately published dissections.