About the Author

Anthony Barcellos (1951-2024) grew up speaking Portuguese on his grandfather's dairy farm in Porterville, a small town in central California's Tulare County.

He came late to fiction writing, having previously devoted his literary talents to science reporting (the Albuquerque Journal, 1978, under a fellowship sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science), computer technology (PC Magazine, 1984-1985, Micro Cornucopia, 1985-1987, and Sacra Blue, 1985-1990), and mathematics (Calculus and Analytic Geometry, 1992, with Sherman K. Stein). 

His interviews of Martin Gardner, Stanislaw Ulam, and Benoit Mandelbrot were published in the Mathematical Association of America's College Math Journal and collected in Mathematical People (Birkhäuser Boston, 1984). Barcellos's 1984 article on "The Fractal Geometry of Mandelbrot" was honored with both the 1985 George Pólya Expository Writing Award and the 1987 Merten M. Hasse Expository Writing Prize. His last book is A Stroll through Calculus, an elementary calculus primer that says it’s “a guide for the merely curious.” The book is currently used in a calculus for non-STEM majors course at Brigham Young University-Idaho.

Barcellos was a 2005 alumnus of the local University of California campus's School of Education doctoral program in mathematics education. UC Davis awarded him two distinguished teaching awards (1976 and 1978) for his instructional services as a teaching assistant in the mathematics department. Prior to his graduate work in Davis, Barcellos earned his master's degree in mathematics from California State University, Fresno (1974), his bachelor's degree from the California Institute of Technology (1973), and his associate's degree from Porterville College (1971).

He served as a legislative assistant to state Senator Albert S. Rodda in 1979-1980 under a California State Senate Fellowship and later worked for the Commission on State Finance (1981-1987) under State Treasurer Jesse M. Unruh. In 1987 he was appointed to the mathematics faculty at American River College in Sacramento, where in 1996 the students chose him as their Instructor of the Year. Barcellos was the recipient of the 2014 Patrons Chair Award for his outstanding contributions to ARC as a teacher, colleague, and role model. He taught at ARC until his death in June 2024.