“The best logic textbook ever”?

I was sorry to hear of the death a few days ago of Max Cresswell. In his long philosophical life he wrote widely, usually on logic-related topics. But for many of us he will always be most remembered as the co-author (with G. E Hughes) of that remarkable 1968 book An Introduction to Modal Logic. I’m ancient enough to remember buying it when it came out and being quite bowled over — not just by its then-still-shiny-new topic but by the book’s extraordinary lucidity and readability.

I’m not the only one with such memories: I see that in a comment on the Leiter blog, Allen Hazen has written “The original, 1968, Introduction to Modal Logic is perhaps the best logic textbook ever for its clarity and for explaining sophisticated technical concepts in ways a genuine beginner can follow.” And yes, we can surely agree that it must come high up any list of candidates for that prize — still a paradigm of what a logic textbook can be.

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