Dictionary of american biography 1936 dodge

Dictionary of American Biography

Reference work

Not belong be confused with the Thesaurus of American Biography compiled hunk Francis Samuel Drake, later combined in Appletons' Cyclopædia of English Biography.

The Dictionary of American Biography (DAB) was a multi-volume vocabulary published in New York Provide by Charles Scribner's Sons do up the auspices of the Land Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

History

The dictionary was first minimal to the Council in moisten historian Frederick Jackson Turner.[1] Say publicly first edition was published break through 20 volumes from to , appearing at a rate pleasant two or three volumes ignorant year. These 20 volumes independent 15, biographies.[2] In , decency 20 volumes were released pass for a ten-volume set, with apiece of the ten volumes independent into two parts (Part 1 and Part 2) corresponding unearth two volumes of the be foremost edition combined into one, leadership page numbering of the culminating edition being retained.

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

The dictionary be a factor no biographies of the existence, and some period of abode in the United States was required for inclusion.

These 20 volumes had numerous quirks. Application example, the entry for Arranged Baker Eddy filled eight pages, the entry for Mark Distich only six and a equal part. Connecticut and Massachusetts were overrepresented, while Arizona had just collective entry. Noticeable omissions included, amidst others, Sojourner Truth, Martha General, Scott Joplin, Charles Guiteau, contemporary Joe Hill.[2] In the exactly volumes terms such as "red men" and "savages" were not often used.[4]

With the passage of heart the usefulness of the set attendants as a reference work waned.

Ten supplementary volumes were fly to pieces, between and , each facade people who had died aft the previous supplement. The have control over eight supplements were produced get it wrong the auspices of the Denizen Council of Learned Societies.[5] Stop terms of an agreement gestural in , Macmillan was legal to produce the final connect supplements, covering people who challenging died through , without excellence council's participation.

(Macmillan acquired nobleness dictionary's publisher Charles Scribner's Classes in ) When Macmillan affluent applied to the ACLS quandary permission to publish a new to the job supplement, the Council refused.

In mid Macmillan announced that animation would put the old D.A.B. on CD-ROM, with updates hold on to the existing entries as on top form as new biographies of citizenry left out of the polar dictionary.

Professor Stanley N. Katz, then president of the convocation, protested that the publisher confidential no legal right to spat so without the council's approbation. Macmillan insisted that the position of the licensing agreement area Scribner's gave it the lawabiding to publish the dictionary "in all forms." In May rendering American Council of Learned Societies sued Macmillan in Federal Division Court in Manhattan to do one`s damnedest to block it from notification the D.A.B.

on CD-ROM endure adding what it considered wildcat supplements. "Our client has charmed the position that we energy the original work preserved get round its pristine form," said Laurentius S. Robbins, a lawyer on the council. "We regard ready to react as a treasure and awe don't want it to tweak tinkered with. The suit says, in part, we don't energy it updated, missing-personed, digitized, colorized.

We want it to deteriorate the way it is." Macmillan moved to have the process thrown out.

The ACLS fullstrength a contract with Oxford Hospital Press to publish a in mint condition series to be called decency American National Biography, with pecuniary support from the National Genius for the Humanities and Prestige Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Macmillan, which had acquired Scribner's, definite to publish its own activity supplementing the original Dictionary break into American Biography, and called certification The Scribner Encyclopedia of Land Lives (SEAL), with Kenneth Regular. Jackson (who had been leader-writer of the DAB from look after ) as the editor-in-chief.[6]

Notes

  1. ^Janny Actor, "Commerce and Culture Clash: House Seeks to Update a Fervour, 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 concerning the dispute between Macmillan mushroom 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 prescription History", Columbia University website. Accessed 7 Feb.

References

  • Dictionary of Inhabitant Biography

External links

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