2 Quotes & Sayings By Ray Cummings
Ray Cummings was born in the tiny town of Beech Creek, Ohio, in 1863. His family moved to Missouri during his youth, where he graduated from high school at the age of fifteen. He worked for a short time on a newspaper before deciding to attend college. Cummings enrolled at the University of Missouri in 1884
At that time, the school had no graduate program. Instead, students were required to take examinations that would get them into graduate school or teach them something practical. Cummings decided he wanted to be a doctor, but was not sure what branch of medicine he would practice.
He took part in student move-a-ment led by William Rainey Harper, who later became known as "the Father of American Psychology." Cummings funded his education by working on Harper's farm and selling books door-to-door while he was still attending college. After graduating from university in 1888, Cummings moved to New York City to live with his sister and to pursue a career in journalism. He worked for several newspapers until he was hired by the New York Times in 1891.
The paper paid him $60 per week, which he supplemented by selling books door-to-door during his spare time. During this time Cummings also wrote for magazines and edited other publications. In 1893, at the age of 24, he published his first book, The Treasury of Humor; or, Stories for Good Times; which sold about 10,000 copies in its first year alone.