Have you ever taken a moment to thank a teacher or someone else who has helped you become what you are today? I haven’t, but I really wish I could.

I had an amazing high school math teacher. Because I was at a small boarding school, I had the same teacher for three years. Elsie Nunn was about 4’5” tall, with Einstein-like hair. She was a whirling dervish and taught me an amazing amount of math using a broomstick, chalk, and a coat hangar. Because of Ms. Nunn, I knew I would major in math and be a school teacher. I did exactly that and taught math for eight years before entering the world of publishing.

In November 2006, Steve Strogatz called me and asked if I would be interested in publishing his new book about his thirty-year correspondence with his high school math teacher, Don Joffray. He told me that the focus of the book was on math problems they discussed through the mail and he also planned to show how their relationship matured and changed through the years. That sounded wonderful and my immediate answer was, “Yes!”. Steve told me that a trade house was interested but only if he would take out the math. That seemed ridiculous to me and I said we would want the book only if the math stayed in. Princeton, of course, was a perfect match, and we began to work on developing the manuscript right away.

Steve had an incomplete set of correspondence because he had not saved all the letters from his teacher and there were large gaps when he did not respond to Joff’s letters. (You will have to read the book to learn why.) The big task was how to write a story around the letters so that everyone would enjoy it—not just mathematicians.

We talked about the book and how it should be developed for a long time. The letters were all about math, which Steve would have to explain to some readers. It was also important to explain what was not in the letters—the non-math things happening in Steve’s and Joff’s lives. Some were quite personal and we had to decide which to include. Joff illustrated his letters with drawings of birds and fish and we knew we had to add them in some way. There were a few false starts, but nothing we tried was just quite right. One day Steve called me and said, “I know how to do it.” He sent me a sample chapter and I agreed that his plan would work. Although we stayed in touch, I didn’t see anything further for a while.

A few months later, I got a package from Steve and I decided to take a quick peek while I ate lunch. It is rare that an editor gets the chance to read a manuscript from beginning to end in one sitting, but that is exactly what I did. I could not stop reading until I got to the last page. I had seen sample letters but reading them all together within the context of the story that Steve had told was amazing. I saw a teacher become a student and a student become a teacher. I saw a self-centered young man become a compassionate teacher, husband, and father. I understood why Joff lived through and for his students and why he was so thrilled by their accomplishments. The bond of the love of math brought Steve and Joff together and no matter what was happening in their lives, the math was constant. But, there came a time when it wasn’t quite enough and that is when they discovered than a stronger connection had probably been there for a long time, but neither of them realized it.

I did eventually finish my lunch but my napkin was tear-soaked. I had never read a manuscript that had such a strong impact on me. I have tried to find my math teacher but have not been successful. I fear that I will not be able to thank her for instilling such a love of math in me. Because of her, I have had a wonderful 30+ year career as a math editor.

Thank you, Ms. Nunn. Thank you, Steve.

Vickie Kearn is Executive Editor at Princeton University Press and the editor of Steven Strogatz’s The Calculus of Friendship.

Steven Strogatz is a mathematician and the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. He is also the author of Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order.