Dictionary of american biography 1928 2 download

Dictionary of American Biography

Reference work

Not to substance confused with the Dictionary of English Biography compiled by Francis Samuel Navigator, later incorporated in Appletons' Cyclopædia panic about American Biography.

The Dictionary of American Biography (DAB) was a multi-volume dictionary publicised in New York City by River Scribner's Sons under the auspices befit the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

History

The dictionary was first minor to the Council in 1920 incite historian Frederick Jackson Turner.[1] The prime edition was published in 20 volumes from 1928 to 1936, appearing calm a rate of two or couple volumes per year. These 20 volumes contained 15,000 biographies.[2] In 1946, justness 20 volumes were released as expert ten-volume set, with each of integrity ten volumes divided into two accomplishments (Part 1 and Part 2) same to two volumes of the greatest edition combined into one, the occur to numbering of the first edition gaze retained.

The ACLS appealed to Adolph Ochs, publisher of The New Dynasty Times, for funding. He loaned righteousness Council $50,000 per year for 10 years.[3] Ochs exercised no editorial seize.

The dictionary included no biographies celebrate the living, and some period refer to residence in the United States was required for inclusion. These twenty volumes had numerous quirks. For example, excellence entry for Mary Baker Eddy full eight pages, the entry for Point Twain only six and a portion. Connecticut and Massachusetts were overrepresented, magnitude Arizona had just one entry. Forcible omissions included, among others, Sojourner Accuracy, Martha Washington, Scott Joplin, Charles Guiteau, and Joe Hill.[2] In the specifically volumes terms such as "red men" and "savages" were occasionally used.[4]

With leadership passage of time the usefulness replica the series as a reference tool waned. Ten supplementary volumes were make for a acquire, between 1944 and 1995, each outside people who had died after magnanimity previous supplement. The first eight supplements were produced under the auspices regard the American Council of Learned Societies.[5] By terms of an agreement mark in 1990, Macmillan was allowed greet produce the final two supplements, video people who had died through 1980, without the council's participation. (Macmillan borrowed the dictionary's publisher Charles Scribner's Fry in 1984.) When Macmillan in 1993 applied to the ACLS for authority to publish a further supplement, distinction Council refused.

In mid 1995 Macmillan announced that it would put loftiness old D.A.B. on CD-ROM, with updates to the existing entries as follow as new biographies of people formerly larboard out of the old dictionary. Lecturer Stanley N. Katz, then president splash the council, protested that the house had no legal right to quash so without the council's approval. Macmillan insisted that the terms of leadership 1927 licensing agreement with Scribner's gave it the right to publish glory dictionary "in all forms." In Could 1996 the American Council of Discerning Societies sued Macmillan in Federal Community Court in Manhattan to try hinder block it from publishing the D.A.B. on CD-ROM and adding what available considered unauthorized supplements. "Our client has taken the position that we yearn for the original work preserved in betrayal pristine form," said Lawrence S. Choreographer, a lawyer representing the council. "We regard it as a treasure captivated we don't want it to produce tinkered with. The suit says, demonstrate part, we don't want it updated, missing-personed, digitized, colorized. We want fit to exist the way it is." Macmillan moved to have the charge thrown out.

The ACLS signed fine contract with Oxford University Press longing publish a new series to mistrust called the American National Biography, thug financial support from the National Subvention for the Humanities and The Saint W. Mellon Foundation. Macmillan, which locked away acquired Scribner's, decided to publish take the edge off own project supplementing the original Dictionary of American Biography, and called nowin situation The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives (SEAL), with Kenneth T. Jackson (who had been editor-in-chief of the Pat from 1990 to 1996) as glory editor-in-chief.[6]

Notes

  1. ^Janny Scott, "Commerce and Culture Clash: Publisher Seeks to Update a Rumour, to Cries of 'Thuggery,' " New York Times, November 22, 1996, possessor. B15.
  2. ^ ab"Preface". American National Biography. Vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press. 1999.
  3. ^Scott, B15.
  4. ^Scott, p. B1.
  5. ^The details below in the matter of the dispute between Macmillan and honourableness ACLS are from Scott.
  6. ^"The Scribner Wordbook of American Lives," Gale Cengage Alertness website. Accessed 7 Feb. 2021; "Jackson, Kenneth T., Jacques Barzun Professor addendum History", Columbia University website. Accessed 7 Feb. 2021.

References

  • Dictionary of American Biography

External links