The Mathematical Theory of Communication

By Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver

First edition in book form, first impression. The University Press: Urbana 1949.

Octavo. Illustrated with diagrams. Original maroon cloth, lettered in silver to the spine.

A very good copy, with slight sunning to the spine and some moderate rubbing to the spine ends and edges. Previous owner’s name and date to the front free endpaper, with an area of white correction fluid beneath the name. A spot affecting the fore-edges of three leaves and a small stain to page 101; the contents otherwise extremely clean. Without the dust jacket.

The first edition of the foundational work of information theory. Shannon’s paper originally appeared under the title “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” in the July and October 1948 issues of the Bell System Technical Journal. This volume brings it together with Warren Weaver’s explanatory essay, “Recent Contributions to the Mathematical Theory of Communication”, a condensed version of which had appeared in Scientific American in July 1949.

Shannon established a general mathematical framework for measuring information and determining the limits of its transmission. Treating messages in terms of their possible forms and probabilities, independently of their meaning, he developed the concepts of information entropy and channel capacity. His analysis established fundamental limits on efficient encoding and showed that, at any rate below a channel’s capacity, suitable coding could make communication through a noisy channel arbitrarily reliable.

The significance of this approach lay in its generality: text, speech and images could be considered within a common mathematical theory of communication. Its treatment of information, coding and noise supplied the foundations of information theory and a mathematical basis for modern digital communications. Weaver’s accompanying essay explained the theory’s central ideas and considered their possible relevance to wider questions of language and communication. A central work in the intellectual history of the information age.