Scientific knowledge grows at a phenomenal pace—but few books have had as lasting an impact or played as important a role in our modern world as The Mathematical Theory of Communication, published originally as a paper on communication theory more than fifty years ago. Republished in book form shortly thereafter, it has since gone through four hardcover and sixteen paperback printings. It is a revolutionary work, astounding in its foresight and contemporaneity. The University of Illinois Press is pleased and honored to issue this commemorative reprinting of a classic.

| "A beautiful example of a theory that unifies hitherto separate branches of physical science, and Dr. Weaver makes important suggestions as to how this unity may be extended to include semantics and pragmatics."—Philosophical Review
"Readers who are interested in language, communication, meaning, and related problems will find this monograph rewarding."—Quarterly Review of Biology

"This book cannot be ignored by anyone with direct professional concern with these applications and many applied physicists without this concern should, like the reviewer, find the book absorbing."—S. Whitehead, British Journal of Applied Physics
|Claude E. Shannon was a research mathematician at the Bell Telephone Laboratories and Donner professor of science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Warren Weaver had a distinguished academic, government, and foundation career. Both authors received numerous awards and honors.