Mike Sullivan:
Writing math texts at the dining table

Sullivan currently has 14 books in print, four of them due out in sixth editions in 2002. He wrote his first book, Topics in Elementary Mathematics, with co-author Abe Mizrahi in 1971, he said, for the reason most text authors do: Because they're unhappy with the textbook they're using. It wasn't very successful. "It generated royalties that averaged two cents per hour," he said. A publisher from John Wiley & Sons came after us to write a second book. "He probably didn't do his homework," Sullivan chuckled. "It just goes to show you can learn from a loser." And Sullivan did. That second book, Finite Mathematics with Applications, in its eighth edition in 1999, won a McGuffey Award for longevity that year. Another of his books, also with Mizrahi, a math professor from Indiana University Northwest, has also seen multiple editions: Mathematics for Business, Social Sciences, and Life Sciences, was in its seventh edition in 1999. He also wrote Calculus and Analytic Geometry, with Mizrahi, which went through three editions before going out of print. He has written five books as a sole author, including College Algebra for which he won a Texty award in 1999. The others: Precalculus in its fifth edition; Algebra and Trigonometry in its fifth edition; and College Algebra with Review, in its second edition in 1993.

Finite was written, he said, to define a market for freshman and sophomore students who needed the subject brought down from a math-major advanced undergraduate level to a level that could be understood by students who weren't math majors. Finite was chosen for the Book of the Month Club, which Sullivan says is "pretty unusual for a math book."

Sullivan said he's most proud of his Precalculus series, in its fifth edition in 1999, because it was the first set he did without a co-author. "It was a difficult market to enter," he said. "To survive with the first edition is noteworthy. To make it to the fifth edition is even better." The precalculus market is very difficult to crack, he said, "you've got to be able to take some failure. When you do crack it, it gets sweeter as you go along."

From the Precalculus series came seven additional books written with Sullivan's son Mike Sullivan III. Four were written in 1996 and three were published in 1997. "One of the books is dedicated to the next generation," Sullivan said. "We talk about the grandkids who may carry the authoring torch." His three latest books are: College Algebra with Emphasis on Graphing and Data Analysis, Algebra and Trigonometry with Emphasis on Graphing and Data Analysis, and Precalculus with Emphasis on Graphing and Data Analysis, due out in the second editions in summer of 2001.

For those who would like to break into textbook authoring, Sullivan says there are two components of a successful text:

• Students can read the book and gain enough to become successful in the course.
• Once the book is adopted, it has staying power.

He also said that the text shouldn't create difficulties in the classroom or complaints from the class, and profs should find it easy to use. He said anyone thinking about authoring has to:

• Be organized.
• Be able to set aside long blocks of time to write, at least three to four hours.
• Be prepared for days when nothing gets accomplished.
• Be able to stick to it.
• Be prepared for a very private experience.

"I remember the first day I started writing the Precalculus series, I pulled out my table of contents and a blank pad of paper and thought, here I go," he said. "I was writing a 800-page book and this was the starting point. It was so overwhelming. It's probably the most discouraging part of it."

Sullivan said he chose a career in math because he was good at it. He did a standard test in high school to determine what students like to do. "I got high scores in math and writing," he said. "I'm thankful I've done both of those things. I love what I do."

In college, he first majored in engineering. After the first test in a math course with an instructor known to be a "hard guy," he asked the instructor how the grades were. The instructor said "so so," except for one good score from a guy named Sullivan. "I thought, wow, I impressed this guy," he said. "He encouraged me to go on and pursue a doctorate in math."

Now retired after 34 years as a math professor at Chicago State University, Sullivan said what he liked most about teaching were students. "The students are what makes teaching," he said. "They're what it's all about. When former students come back to me and talk about how my teaching has influenced them, I know I've made my mark."

Sullivan and grandkids

Now that he's retired, he shares his time between Chicago and Naples, Florida. He still owns River Oaks Travel, a travel agency he started 14 years ago in Chicago. Sullivan said he enjoys owning the travel agency, which he decided to start after dabbling in different investments and becoming tired of ones that took time and effort but weren't fun. "I enjoy it," he said. "It gives me ideas about places to go." Besides traveling, he enjoys watching sunsets and being near the water.

Sullivan is active in Text and Academic Authors and was elected treasurer for a second term in 1999. His recommendation to extend terms for TAA's vice president and president positions to two years and for Council positions to three years was approved by the Council in 1999. He won a Keedy Award for service to the organization in 1997 and was inducted into the TAA Council of Fellows in 1999.

Sullivan has four children: Kathleen, a math teacher; Michael, a tenured math and economics professor at a community college in Illinois; Dan, who sells books for Prentice-Hall; and Colleen, a middle school math teacher.

— reported by Kim Pawlak, 2000