These autobiographical memoirs of Neal Koblitz, coinventor of one of the two most popular forms of encryption and digital signature, cover many topics besides his own personal career in mathematics and cryptography - travels to the Soviet Union, Latin America, Vietnam and elsewhere; political activism, and academic controversies relating to math education, the C. P. Snow "two-culture" problem, and mistreatment of women in academia. The stories speak for themselves and reflect the experiences of a student and later a scientist caught up in the tumultuous events of his generation.

Neal Koblitz is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington in the Department of Mathematics. He is also an adjunct professor with the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research at the University of Waterloo. He is the creator of hyperelliptic curve cryptography and the independent co-creator of elliptic curve cryptography. Professor Koblitz received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, where he was a Putnam Fellow, in 1969. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1974 under the direction of Nickolas Katz.