First Book in Arithmetic (Oral and Written; American Progressive Series)

First edition, 1876. Cloth-backed boards, 12mo, 144pp. Copyright A. H. English & Co. Very Good+ with mild soil and wear to exterior; internally tight and clean. A particularly handsome elementary math textbook with elaborate illustrations by noted engraver John Karst, who illustrated the McGuffey's Readers and other educational works. Goff was a math professor at the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh) and was the first faculty member to become Chancellor of the University, in 1884. Goff edited Miner's Pittsburgh Almanac in the early 1870s; this appears to have been Goff's first math textbook; his 'Complete Book in Arithmetic' was published shortly thereafter and variations on the title were published before he died in 1890 from injuries sustained at a Pittsburgh steel mill. American Book Company reprinted the current title in 1904. Scarce: 8 copies in OCLC, most in Pennsylvania institutions.