The HinduOCoArabic numeral system (1, 2, 3, ...) is one of mankind''sgreatest achievements and one of its most commonly usedinventions. How did it originate? Those who have written about thenumeral system have hypothesized that it originated in India; however, there is little evidence to support this claim. This book provides considerable evidence to show that theHinduOCoArabic numeral system, despite its commonly accepted name, has its origins in the Chinese rod numeral system. This system waswidely used in China from antiquity till the 16th century. It was usedby officials, astronomers, traders and others to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and other arithmetic operations, and also used by mathematicians to develop arithmetic andalgebra. Based on this system, numerous mathematical treatises werewritten."

The forty-six short stories collected in this volume were originally published in The Colored American Magazine or The Crisis between 1900 and 1920. The Introduction to the collection, written by Elizabeth Ammons, explores the role played by the major black magazines of that period and demonstrates how these two magazines provided the largest secular outlets for short fiction by black women at the turn of the century.

Reading Abilio Estevez's Thine Is the Kingdom is a little like attending a cocktail party blindfolded: a million conversations are all happening at the same time and you have to work to figure out just who's talking. But this remarkable novel out of Cuba is worth the extra effort. Set in a run-down enclave of pre-Castro Havana known as the Island, the story follows the fortunes of its residents through a magical realist dreamscape of fantasy, history, life, death, love, and the weather. There is the crazy Barefoot Countess; the pastry vendor, Merengue; and the bookstore owner Rolo. There is Miss Berta who lives with her always sleeping 90-year-old mother, Dona Juana, and Irene who lives with her not-yet-out-of-the-closet gay son, Lucio. Professor Kingston, the Jamaican English teacher; Casta Diva, a would-be opera singer; Chavito, the carver of poor imitations of classical statues; Vido, the adolescent voyeur; Mercedes and her blind sister Marta who dreams of Florence--the cast is enormous and cacophonous. The book hopscotches among characters, tenses, first-, second-, and third-person narratives--often within the same paragraph--as Estevez plunges us headlong into the inner thoughts, dreams, and fears of his multitude of dramatis personae:On this page it is best to use the future tense, a generally inadvisable practice. It has already been written that Chacho had gotten back from Headquarters just past four in the afternoon, and that he was the first to notice the coming storm.... The following day, after the events that will soon be narrated had taken place, Chacho will begin to talk less, and less, and less, until he decides to take to bed.... And, as it is best not to abuse this generally inadvisable tense, it is just and proper that we leave Chacho to his silence until such a time as he should reappear, as God wills it, in this narration.In less accomplished hands this hodgepodge of voices, narrative threads, and personalities might have added up to literary bedlam. But there is method in Estevez's madness as the story gradually emerges; in the meantime the sheer force of his prose and sly commentary on his own inventions carry the reader through this brilliant debut by one of Cuba's best and brightest new voices. --Alix Wilber Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

“Boulder County isn’t short of ghost stories . . . highlights 20 different destinations in Longmont that are said to be haunted” (Travel Boulder). Longmont is a city warm and friendly by day but overrun with restless spirits by night. With namesake Long's Peak looming over it, the town’s chilling history casts a specter over its present. The gruesome 1864 Sand Creek Massacre may be connected to the murder of a successful local entrepreneur whose property is said to be haunted. Though retail empire JCPenney outgrew its hometown, its legacy lingers in the form of the Phantom Lady. An airliner exploded in the night skies and led to the execution of a desperate criminal. Join paranormal investigator Richard Estep on his fifteen-year journey to reveal and document the interwoven, ghoulish tales of this colorful Colorado city. Includes photos! “Although ghost sightings through the centuries have been largely disregarded by the mainstream as imaginary, the stories have persisted. Estep wants to know why. . . . His Longmont book features 20 different haunted properties in Longmont, just a handful of the many he says he has experienced firsthand.” —Daily Camera

Zero has been axial in human development, but the origin and discovery of zero has never been satisfactorily addressed by a comprehensive, systematic and above all interdisciplinary research program. In this volume, over 40 international scholars explore zero under four broad themes: history; religion, philosophy & linguistics; arts; and mathematics & the sciences. Some propose that the invention/discovery of zero may have been facilitated by the prior evolution of a sophisticated concept of Nothingness or Emptiness (as it is understood in non-European traditions); and conversely, inhibited by the absence of, or aversion to, such a concept of Nothingness in the West. But not all scholars agree. Join the debate.