Over a period of 24 years (January 1957 – December 1980), Martin Gardner wrote 288 consecutive monthly "Mathematical Games" columns for Scientific American magazine. During the next 7+1⁄2 years, through June 1986, Gardner wrote 9 more columns, bringing his total to 297, as other authors wrote most of the "Mathematical Games" columns. The table below lists Gardner's columns. Twelve of Gardner's columns provided the cover art for that month's magazine, indicated by "[cover]" in the table with a hyperlink to the cover.