Needham wrote the book Visual Complex Analysis, which has received positive reviews.[6] Though it is described as a "radical first course in complex analysis aimed at undergraduates", writing in Mathematical Reviews D.H. Armitage said that "the book will be appreciated most by those who already know some complex analysis."[7] In fact Douglas Hofstadter wrote "Needham's work of art with its hundreds and hundreds of beautiful figures á la Latta, brings complex analysis alive in an unprecedented manner".[8] Hofstadter had studied complex analysis at Stanford with Gordon Latta, and he recalled "Latta's amazingly precise and elegant blackboard diagrams". In 2001 a German language version, translated by Norbert Herrmann and Ina Paschen, was published by R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich.
In 2021, Needham published Visual Differential Geometry and Forms: A Mathematical Drama in Five Acts (Princeton University Press)[9]. (The original title was Visual Differential Geometry.) Much of this material was already developed in the writing of Visual Complex Analysis.
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Frank A. Farris (1998) American Mathematical Monthly, 105(6):570: "Visual Complex Analysis will show you the field of complex analysis in a way you almost certainly have not seen it before".
^Farris, Frank A. (1998-01-01). "Review of Visual Complex Analysis". The American Mathematical Monthly. 105 (6): 570–576. doi:10.2307/2589427. JSTOR2589427.
^Shiu, P. (1999-01-01). "Review of Visual Complex Analysis". The Mathematical Gazette. 83 (496): 182–183. doi:10.2307/3618747. JSTOR3618747.
