Favorite Author? (Math/Physics)

[Pinu7]

Who is your favorite book(math/physics) author and why? I'm not sure why I ask since most of you will probably say Arnold, which is fair.

Personally, I love Serge Lang's books, a perfect mix of clarity and rigor and somehow is concise.

[Reedeegi]

For myself, my favorite authors can only be classified by their subject matter.

For Algebra and Category Theory, I love Saunders Mac Lane. His books are clear, precise, and are excellent for self study and for reference.

For Analysis, I adore the Rudin series; that should be a given.

For Topology, Dugundji is my favorite; his topology book is sheer pleasure to read.

For Physics, I'm especially fond of Robert Wald; his text on General Relativity is superb.

[aPhilosopher]

Lang's Undergraduate Analysis and Algebra are probably two of the best math books that I've ever read. I'm still working on the latter.

Robert Valenza is a really good writer but he's only written two books; Linear Algebra and a book on Fourier analysis on number fields. I have no interest in the latter and so haven't read it. The linear algebra book was good enough to make me wish that I cared about number theory though.

[lurflurf]

There are many metrics available L1,L2...
Some that come to mind are
Philip Franklin
Cornelius Lanczos
Georgi E. Shilov
Richard W. Hamming
G. N. Watson
Dean Duffy
Earl Rainville
Serge Lang
Paul R. Halmos
Edward L. Ince
E. T Copson
Saunders Mac Lane
Steven Roman
Andrew Russel Forsyth
T. J. Bromwich
Florian Cajori
Peter Lax
Shlomo Sternberg
Herbert S. Wilf
G. H. Hardy

wow their exist many good authors

[Landau]

Spivak: his prose in Calculus and in his 5-volume Differential Geometry (of which I have only skimmed the first one) is pure joy; his formal style in Calculus on Manifolds is nice.
Apostol: no-nonsense, to the point, and crystal clear.
Lang: always talks to you like an intellegent human being, precise, concise, and never hides the (sometimes ugly) truth. His books are so packed with information, you'll learn so much from every one of them.
Gelfand: Russian master; his book on Calculus on Variations is beautiful, and his Lectures on Linear Algebra is better every time you read it. Also to the point, clear proofs, and very logically written books.
Landau: another Russian; although he doesn't always treat the mathematics rigorously, he has given me much physical insight. The books Classical Field Theory and Mechanics almost make me cry, can physics be presented more beautifully and clearly?

[colonelcrayon]

I haven't read enough to give a full list, but I can certainly recommend the following:

G. Polya
Ian Stewart
Yaglom (either of the brothers)

Other science:

Larry Wall
Linus Pauling

[Pinu7]

I like many of your favorite books you've listed, guys.

I can't believe none of you named Jerrold E. Marsden.