Royal Vale Heath (5 January 1883 – 25 July 1960) was a wealthy New York stockbroker and writer who became widely known as a magician and puzzle enthusiast.
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
, July 27, 1960[Royal Vale Heath]
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His magic tricks were often based on mathematics and he introduced the term "
mathemagic
A mathemagician is a mathematician who is also a magician. The term "mathemagic" is believed to have been introduced by Royal Vale Heath with his 1933 book "Mathemagic"."Mathemagic" by Royal Vale Heath and Jerome Sydney Meyer, Simon and Schuster, ...
" to describe them in a 1933 book titled ''Mathemagic''.
["Mathemagic" by Royal Vale Heath and Jerome Sydney Meyer, Simon and Schuster, New York (1933)] He was a frequent contributor to ''
Scripta Mathematica
''Scripta Mathematica'' was a quarterly journal published by Yeshiva University devoted to the philosophy, history, and expository treatment of mathematics. It was said to be, at its time, "the only mathematical magazine in the world edited by spe ...
'',
[ '' Hugard's Magic Monthly'', and '' The Jinx''.][Royal Vale Heath]
Conjuring Archive: Searchable Magic Book Contents
He specialized in tricks involving dice, serial numbers and magic square
In recreational mathematics, a square array of numbers, usually positive integers, is called a magic square if the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diagonals are the same. The 'order' of the magic square is the number ...
s.[Special Exhibits]