Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838-1926) has been ranked as one of the leading scholars and theologians of the Victorian era. He received highest honors in mathematics, classics, and theology at St. John's College, Cambridge, and in 1862 began a brilliant career, during which he served as schoolmaster of some of England's outstanding schools. At the same time he distinguished himself as a scholar, and in 1889 he retired to his studies. Although "Flatland, a literary jeu d'esprit, " has given pleasure to thousands of readers over many generations, Abbott is best known for his scholarly works, especially his "Shakespearian Grammar "and his life of Francis Bacon, and for a number of theological discussions.
William F. Lindgren is a Professor of Mathematics at Slippery Rock University. He is the author of Quasi-Uniform Spaces (1982) with Peter Fletcher and has given many talks about Flatland at various conferences, including the Joint Meetings of the AMS/MAA.
Thomas F. Banchoff is a Professor of Mathematics at Brown University. He is the author of Beyond the Third Dimension and Linear Algebra Through Geometry (with John Wermer) and the editor of a reprint of Henry P. Manning's The Fourth Dimension Simply Explained.