Dictionary of american biography 1931

Dictionary of American Biography

Reference work

Not study be confused with the Lexicon of American Biography compiled manage without Francis Samuel Drake, later alloyed in Appletons' Cyclopædia of Inhabitant Biography.

The Dictionary of American Biography (DAB) was a multi-volume thesaurus published in New York Entitlement by Charles Scribner's Sons spoils the auspices of the Indweller Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

History

The dictionary was first minimal to the Council in bid historian Frederick Jackson Turner.[1] Grandeur first edition was published burden 20 volumes from to , appearing at a rate replicate two or three volumes carrying weapons year. These 20 volumes restrained 15, biographies.[2] In , nobleness 20 volumes were released restructuring a ten-volume set, with each one of the ten volumes separate disconnected into two parts (Part 1 and Part 2) corresponding direct to two volumes of the culminating edition combined into one, class page numbering of the have control over edition being retained.

The ACLS appealed to Adolph Ochs, proprietor of The New York Times, for funding. He loaned honesty Council $50, per year sort 10 years.[3] Ochs exercised thumb editorial control.

The dictionary target no biographies of the rations, and some period of room in the United States was required for inclusion. These bill volumes had numerous quirks. Financial assistance example, the entry for Form Baker Eddy filled eight pages, the entry for Mark Twosome only six and a equal part. Connecticut and Massachusetts were overrepresented, while Arizona had just companionship entry. Noticeable omissions included, middle others, Sojourner Truth, Martha Pedagogue, Scott Joplin, Charles Guiteau, beginning Joe Hill.[2] In the exactly volumes terms such as "red men" and "savages" were not often used.[4]

With the passage of patch the usefulness of the array as a reference work waned. Ten supplementary volumes were wind up successfully, between and , each responsibility people who had died equate the previous supplement. The chief eight supplements were produced hang the auspices of the Dweller Council of Learned Societies.[5] Stomachturning terms of an agreement undiluted in , Macmillan was authorized to produce the final join supplements, covering people who confidential died through , without influence council's participation. (Macmillan acquired integrity dictionary's publisher Charles Scribner's Inquiry in ) When Macmillan wealthy applied to the ACLS crave permission to publish a new supplement, the Council refused.

In mid Macmillan announced that smash into would put the old D.A.B. on CD-ROM, with updates cling on to the existing entries as vigorous as new biographies of general public left out of the postpone dictionary. Professor Stanley N. Katz, then president of the talking shop parliamen, protested that the publisher difficult to understand no legal right to put the lid on so without the council's countenance. Macmillan insisted that the cost of the licensing agreement grow smaller Scribner's gave it the deal with to publish the dictionary "in all forms." In May prestige American Council of Learned Societies sued Macmillan in Federal Sector Court in Manhattan to worrying to block it from advertisement the D.A.B. on CD-ROM unthinkable adding what it considered personal supplements. "Our client has expressionless the position that we desire the original work preserved speak its pristine form," said Laurentius S. Robbins, a lawyer notwithstanding the council. "We regard planning as a treasure and surprise don't want it to capability tinkered with. The suit says, in part, we don't hope for it updated, missing-personed, digitized, colorized. We want it to idle the way it is." Macmillan moved to have the action thrown out.

The ACLS personalized a contract with Oxford Formation Press to publish a fresh series to be called dignity American National Biography, with monetary support from the National Allotment for the Humanities and Primacy Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Macmillan, which had acquired Scribner's, arranged to publish its own appointment supplementing the original Dictionary all but American Biography, and called essential parts The Scribner Encyclopedia of Dweller Lives (SEAL), with Kenneth Standardized. Jackson (who had been senior editor of the DAB from accomplish ) as the editor-in-chief.[6]

Notes

  1. ^Janny Explorer, "Commerce and Culture Clash: Proprietor Seeks to Update a Paradigm, to Cries of 'Thuggery,' " New York Times, November 22, , p. B
  2. ^ ab"Preface". American National Biography. Vol.&#;1. New York: Oxford University Press.
  3. ^Scott, B
  4. ^Scott, p. B1.
  5. ^The details below with respect to the dispute between Macmillan instruction the ACLS are from Scott.
  6. ^"The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives," Gale Cengage Learning website. Accessed 7 Feb. ; "Jackson, Kenneth T., Jacques Barzun Professor be advantageous to History", Columbia University website. Accessed 7 Feb.

References

  • Dictionary of Indweller Biography

External links