"IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO USE THE WORD DYNAMIC IN A PEJORATIVE SENSE": BELLMAN'S DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING

BELLMAN, Richard. Dynamic Programming. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957. Octavo, original dark green cloth, original dust jacket. $1600.

First edition of Bellman's pioneering work on "dynamic" or recursive programming. A lovely copy in a particularly bright original dust jacket.

"An introduction to the mathematical theory of multi-stage decision processes. Bellman, a mathematician with the RAND Corporation, coined the term 'dynamic programming' in 1954, and developed the theory through its early stages, formulating the equation called 'Bellman's optimality condition' that, given certain presumptions, the best strategy must obey" (Hook & Norman 455). Bellman himself, in his autobiography, describes coming up with the term "dynamic programming" as a practical necessity in an environment rendered hostile to scientific or mathematical research by the then-Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson. "It's impossible to use the word dynamic in a pejorative sense," he writes. "Try thinking of some combination that will possibly give it a pejorative meaning. It's impossible. Thus, I thought dynamic programming was a good name. It was something not even a Congressman could object to. So I used it as an umbrella for my activities" (Bellman, Eye of the Hurricane, 159). (It has also been pointed out that Bellman's first paper to use the term appeared the year before Wilson became Secretary of Defense.). Hook & Norman, Origins of Cyberspace 455. Bookplate.

Book fine, dust jacket with shallow rubs to spine head and corners, green panel on spine faded to yellow, bright and clean, near-fine. A lovely copy.