Enumerative Combinatorics: Volume 1

Product Description
This book, the first of a two-volume basic introduction to enumerative combinatorics, concentrates on the theory and application of generating functions, a fundamental tool in enumerative combinatorics. Richard Stanley covers those parts of enumerative combinatorics with the greatest applications to other areas of mathematics. The four chapters are devoted to an accessible introduction to enumeration, sieve methods--including the Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion, partially ordered sets, and rational generating functions. A large number of exercises, almost all with solutions, augment the text and provide entry into many areas not covered directly. Graduate students and research mathematicians who wish to apply combinatorics to their work will find this an authoritative reference.
Review
"...sure to become a standard as an introductory graduate text in combinatorics."
Bulletin of the AMS

"Stanley's book is very readable and a mine of information."
Journal of the LMS

"...will engage from start to finish the attention of any mathematician who will open it at page one."
Gian-Carlo Rota

"...an excellent and valuable book."
Mathematical Reviews
Book Description
Enumerative combinatorics deals with the basic problem of counting how many objects have a given property. Since this problem arises in many areas of mathematics and science the subject is of great applicability. This book provides an introduction to the subject at a level suitable for graduate students and research mathematicians. The author has made a special effort, by providing extensive exercises with solutions, to show the broad applicability of enumerative combinatorics to other areas of mathematics.
About the Author
Richard P. Stanley is a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is universally recognized as a leading expert in the field of combinatorics and its applications to a variety of other mathematical disciplines. In addition to the seminal two-volume book Enumerative Combinatorics, he is the author of Combinatorics and Commutative Algebra (1983) as well as more than 100 research articles in mathematics. Among Stanley's many distinctions are membership in the National Academy of Sciences (elected in 1995), the 2001 Leroy P. Steele Prize for mathematical exposition and the 2003 Schock Prize.

Gian-Carlo Rota (1932 1999) was a Professor of Applied Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a member of the National Academy of Science. He was awarded the 1988 Steele Prize of the American Mathematical Society for his 1964 paper 'On the Foundations of Combinatorial Theory I. Theory of Moebius Functions.' He was the founding editor of the Journal of Combinatorial Theory.