Categories for the Working Mathematician

Categories for the Working Mathematician
Author	Saunders Mac Lane
Language	English
Series	Graduate Texts in Mathematics; Vol. 5
Subject	Category theory
Publisher	Springer Science+Business Media
Publication date	1971
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print
Pages	262
ISBN	0-387-90036-5
OCLC	488352436
Dewey Decimal	512.55
LC Class	LCC QA169.M33

Categories for the Working Mathematician (CWM) is a textbook in category theory written by American mathematician Saunders Mac Lane, who cofounded the subject together with Samuel Eilenberg. It was first published in 1971, and is based on his lectures on the subject given at the University of Chicago, the Australian National University, Bowdoin College, and Tulane University. It is widely regarded^[1]^[2] as the premier introduction to the subject.

^ Leinster, Tom (2014). Basic Category Theory. Cambridge University Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-1-139-99285-5. "The towering presence among category theory books is the classic one by one of its founders: Saunders Mac Lane's Categories for the Working Mathematician"
^ Awodey, Steve (2010). Category Theory. Oxford University Press. p. iv. ISBN 978-0-19-151382-4. "Why write a new textbook on Category Theory, when we already have Mac Lane’s Categories for the Working Mathematician? Simply put, because Mac Lane’s book is for the working (and aspiring) mathematician. What is needed now, after 30 years of spreading into various other disciplines and places in the curriculum, is a book for everyone else." Awodey also dedicated the book to Saunders Mac Lane.