Pólya's Work in Probability

Pólya's first publication, his 1913 Dissertation [1] in Hungarian, treats a problem in probability. His lifelong interest in this field is evident from his Bibliography (see Collected Papers, Vol.4; numbers in [ ] below are those given there). Besides the twenty papers reprinted in that volume, some ten more titles indicate probability and statistics. Some of his contributions to probability are classified as analysis, others perhaps as combinatorics. The major items which will be discussed here have long since become textbook material, [R1]. (References for this article are indicated by the letter R and listed at the end.) Readers wishing to learn more details of the results summarized below should consult these texts…