3 Vintage Mathematics Books – 2 by Joseph Ray, 19th Century Math Educator.
Lot 536. 3 Vintage Mathematics Books – 2 by Joseph Ray, 19th Century Math Educator. All three books are hardbacks without dust jackets. Ray was a Cincinnati area medical doctor who became a high school teacher and principal and then a college professor. Mathematics was his specialty, and he wrote a series of books that were used as arithmetic and algebra textbooks in much of the U.S. in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was only 47 when he died in 1855, but posthumous sales of his books were strong. By 1913, his series of books had sold an estimated 120 million copies, with annual sales estimated at 250,000. Total sales put him in the same class as the Bible, “Webster’s Dictionary” and McGuffey’s Readers. His two books here are “Ray’s Higher Arithmetic: The Principles of Arithmetic, Analyzed and Practically Applied for Advanced Students,” 1856, published by Wilson, Hinkle & Co., g+, pencil writing on front end-paper, back end-paper missing. And “Ray’s New Higher Arithmetic: A Revised Edition of the Higher Arithmetic,” 1890, published by American Book Co., p+, leather missing from the spine, binding loose, front end-paper and some page inside written on in pencil. The third book is “The Pilot Arithmetics: Book One,” by Lou Belle Stevens and James H. Van Sickle, 1923, illustrated front cover, vg. If “new math” or some other modern arithmetic system has you puzzled and perplexed, you can return to basics with the 1,000+ pages of math in these three volumes. Minimum Bid $20.
