Martin Gardner was born into a prosperous family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to James Henry Gardner, a prominent petroleum geologist, and his wife, Willie Wilkerson Spiers, a Montessori-trained teacher. His mother taught Martin to read before he started school, reading him "The Wizard of Oz", and this began a lifelong interest in the Oz books of L. Frank Baum. His fascination with puzzles started in his boyhood when his father gave him a copy of Sam Loyd's "Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks and Conundrums".