J. Frank Adams was one of the world's leading topologists. He solved a number of celebrated problems in algebraic topology, a subject in which he initiated many of the most active areas of research. He wrote a large number of papers during the period 1955–1988, and they are characterised by elegant writing and depth of thought. Few of them have been superseded by later work. This selection, in two volumes, brings together all his major research contributions. They are organised by subject matter rather than in strict chronological order. The first contains papers on: the cobar construction, the Adams spectral sequence, higher-order cohomology operations, and the Hopf invariant one problem; applications of K-theory; generalised homology and cohomology theories. The second volume is mainly concerned with Adams' contributions to: characteristic classes and calculations in K-theory; modules over the Steenrod algebra and their Ext groups; finite H-spaces and compact Lie groups; maps between classifying spaces of compact groups. Every serious student or practitioner of algebraic topology will want to own a copy of these two volumes both as a historical record and as a source of continued reference.
