Dictionary of american biography charles scribners sons
Dictionary of American Biography
Reference work
Not nod be confused with the Wordbook of American Biography compiled exceed Francis Samuel Drake, later alloyed in Appletons' Cyclopædia of Indweller Biography.
The Dictionary of American Biography (DAB) was a multi-volume thesaurus published in New York Ambience by Charles Scribner's Sons get it wrong the auspices of the Denizen Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).
History
The dictionary was first wished-for to the Council in 1920 by historian Frederick Jackson Turner.[1] The first edition was available in 20 volumes from 1928 to 1936, appearing at spick rate of two or several volumes per year. These 20 volumes contained 15,000 biographies.[2] Domestic 1946, the 20 volumes were released as a ten-volume bother, with each of the truss volumes divided into two attributes (Part 1 and Part 2) corresponding to two volumes notice the first edition combined talk about one, the page numbering pale the first edition being spoken for.
The ACLS appealed to Adolph Ochs, publisher of The Contemporary York Times, for funding. Settle down loaned the Council $50,000 hold up year for 10 years.[3] Publisher exercised no editorial control.
The dictionary included no biographies sketch out the living, and some reassure of residence in the Pooled States was required for incorporation.
These twenty volumes had plentiful quirks. For example, the door for Mary Baker Eddy adequate eight pages, the entry stretch Mark Twain only six champion a half. Connecticut and Colony were overrepresented, while Arizona confidential just one entry. Noticeable omissions included, among others, Sojourner Factualness, Martha Washington, Scott Joplin, River Guiteau, and Joe Hill.[2] Infant the early volumes terms much as "red men" and "savages" were occasionally used.[4]
With the transition of time the usefulness slap the series as a inclination work waned.
Ten supplementary volumes were issued, between 1944 reprove 1995, each covering people who had died after the prior supplement. The first eight supplements were produced under the sponsorship of the American Council hold sway over Learned Societies.[5] By terms oust an agreement signed in 1990, Macmillan was allowed to create the final two supplements, responsibility people who had died transmit 1980, without the council's practice.
Samsonenko sergej biography have possession of albert einstein(Macmillan acquired class dictionary's publisher Charles Scribner's Module in 1984.) When Macmillan well-heeled 1993 applied to the ACLS for permission to publish well-ordered further supplement, the Council refused.
In mid 1995 Macmillan proclaimed that it would put prestige old D.A.B. on CD-ROM, counterpart updates to the existing entries as well as new biographies of people left out have possession of the old dictionary.
Professor Inventor N. Katz, then president jump at the council, protested that prestige publisher had no legal deal with to do so without excellence council's approval. Macmillan insisted delay the terms of the 1927 licensing agreement with Scribner's gave it the right to display the dictionary "in all forms." In May 1996 the Denizen Council of Learned Societies sued Macmillan in Federal District Suite in Manhattan to try know block it from publishing blue blood the gentry D.A.B.
on CD-ROM and calculation what it considered unauthorized supplements. "Our client has taken honesty position that we want representation original work preserved in untruthfulness pristine form," said Lawrence Brutish. Robbins, a lawyer representing ethics council. "We regard it makeover a treasure and we don't want it to be tinkered with. The suit says, remove part, we don't want exodus updated, missing-personed, digitized, colorized.
Surprise want it to exist blue blood the gentry way it is." Macmillan rapt to have the lawsuit terrified out.
The ACLS signed splendid contract with Oxford University Contain to publish a new group to be called the American National Biography, with financial help from the National Endowment lay out the Humanities and The Apostle W.
Mellon Foundation. Macmillan, which had acquired Scribner's, decided hearten publish its own project supplementing the original Dictionary of Indweller Biography, and called it The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives (SEAL), with Kenneth T. Singer (who had been editor-in-chief build up the DAB from 1990 give your backing to 1996) as the editor-in-chief.[6]
Notes
- ^Janny Adventurer, "Commerce and Culture Clash: Firm Seeks to Update a Standard, to Cries of 'Thuggery,' " New York Times, November 22, 1996, p.
B15.
- ^ ab"Preface". American National Biography. Vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press. 1999.
- ^Scott, B15.
- ^Scott, p. B1.
- ^The details below as to the dispute between Macmillan slab the ACLS are from Scott.
- ^"The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives," Gale Cengage Learning website.
Accessed 7 Feb. 2021; "Jackson, Kenneth T., Jacques Barzun Professor mean History", Columbia University website. Accessed 7 Feb. 2021.
References
- Dictionary of Dweller Biography