Points and Lines / Universitext (PDF)

Ernest Shult studied finite groups with Michio Suzuki, and held visiting fellowships at the University of Chicago and the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study in the 1960's. He continued to contribute to finite groups until he got interested in incidence geometry. In 1987-8, he received a US Scientist Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Freiburg Germany.

From the reviews:

“In this expansive volume, Shult (Kansas State Univ.) attempts to provide a thorough, self-contained characterization of geometries of Lie type by means of local axioms on points and lines. … There is enough material here for several semester-long graduate courses; alternatively, the book could be used as a reference work. Shult makes every effort to remain chatty … and intuitive while ensuring precision and detail. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and researchers.” (S. J. Colley, Choice, Vol. 48 (11), July, 2011)

“This book presents characterizations of the classical geometries of Lie type by axioms on points and lines; it is a teaching book with detailed proofs, written for beginning graduate students. … Most chapters end with a set of exercises … . The whole book shows the author’s love of incidence geometry and of teaching.” (Theo Grundhöfer, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2011 m)

“Shult has designed the book as a self-contained resource for a graduate student who plans to pursue research in this area. … the book gives detailed proofs and offers exercises at the end of each chapter, organized by topic. … geometrically inclined readers will wish to illustrate the text, in addition to working through the official exercises. … the intensity of detail and sparsity of illustrations make it more suitable as a handbook for experts … .” (Ursula Whitcher, The Mathematical Association of America, July, 2012)