Late in his life Gardner once said, "When I first started the column, I was not in touch with any mathematicians, and gradually mathematicians who were creative in the field found out about the column and began corresponding with me. So my most interesting columns were columns based on the material I got from them, so I owe them a big debt of gratitude." The games column was not just Gardner. It was this group of people he collected, nurtured, and acted as a conduit for—a group that came to be known as "Martin Gardner’s mathematical grapevine."