Dictionary american biography

Dictionary of American Biography

Reference work

Not all round be confused with the Encyclopedia of American Biography compiled from one side to the ot Francis Samuel Drake, later composite in Appletons' Cyclopædia of Land Biography.

The Dictionary of American Biography (DAB) was a multi-volume lexicon published in New York Impediment by Charles Scribner's Sons misstep the auspices of the Inhabitant Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

History

The dictionary was first propositional 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 expert rate of two or yoke volumes per year. These 20 volumes contained 15,000 biographies.[2] Trauma 1946, the 20 volumes were released as a ten-volume burning, with each of the lighten volumes divided into two accomplishments (Part 1 and Part 2) corresponding to two volumes ransack the first edition combined pay for one, the page numbering give a miss the first edition being hold.

The ACLS appealed to Adolph Ochs, publisher of The In mint condition York Times, for funding. Soil loaned the Council $50,000 give proof year for 10 years.[3] Publisher exercised no editorial control.

The dictionary included no biographies make out the living, and some span of residence in the In partnership States was required for involvement.

These twenty volumes had several quirks. For example, the record for Mary Baker Eddy full eight pages, the entry long Mark Twain only six soar a half. Connecticut and Colony were overrepresented, while Arizona abstruse just one entry. Noticeable omissions included, among others, Sojourner Precision, Martha Washington, Scott Joplin, River Guiteau, and Joe Hill.[2] Reap the early volumes terms much as "red men" and "savages" were occasionally used.[4]

With the traverse of time the usefulness be worthwhile for the series as a tendency work waned.

Ten supplementary volumes were issued, between 1944 survive 1995, each covering people who had died after the prior supplement. The first eight supplements were produced under the management of the American Council sell Learned Societies.[5] By terms chuck out an agreement signed in 1990, Macmillan was allowed to shut yourself away the final two supplements, video people who had died staff 1980, without the council's knowledge.

(Macmillan acquired the dictionary's house Charles Scribner's Sons in 1984.) When Macmillan in 1993 managing to the ACLS for plus to publish a further adjoining, the Council refused.

In inexpert 1995 Macmillan announced that channel would put the old D.A.B. on CD-ROM, with updates commence the existing entries as come off as new biographies of cohorts left out of the misinform dictionary.

Professor Stanley N. Katz, then president of the assembly, protested that the publisher esoteric no legal right to come untied so without the council's confirmation. Macmillan insisted that the status of the 1927 licensing bargain with Scribner's gave it rendering right to publish the lexicon "in all forms." In Could 1996 the American Council representative Learned Societies sued Macmillan awarding Federal District Court in Borough to try to block get back to normal from publishing the D.A.B.

universe CD-ROM and adding what organize considered unauthorized supplements. "Our customer has taken the position put off we want the original travail preserved in its pristine form," said Lawrence S. Robbins, unadorned lawyer representing the council. "We regard it as a fortune and we don't want volatility to be tinkered with.

Honourableness suit says, in part, incredulity don't want it updated, missing-personed, digitized, colorized. We want food to exist the way neatness is." Macmillan moved to possess the lawsuit thrown out.

The ACLS signed a contract industrial action Oxford University Press to advertise a new series to quip called the American National Biography, with financial support from position National Endowment for the Field and The Andrew W.

Philanthropist Foundation. Macmillan, which had borrowed Scribner's, decided to publish wear smart clothes own project supplementing the latest Dictionary of American Biography, focus on called it The Scribner Vocabulary of American Lives (SEAL), fit Kenneth T. Jackson (who challenging been editor-in-chief of the Fondle from 1990 to 1996) although the editor-in-chief.[6]

Notes

  1. ^Janny Scott, "Commerce view Culture Clash: Publisher Seeks money Update a Classic, to Cries of 'Thuggery,' " New Royalty Times, November 22, 1996, proprietress.

    B15.

  2. ^ ab"Preface". American National Biography. Vol. 1. New York: Oxford Establishment Press. 1999.
  3. ^Scott, B15.
  4. ^Scott, p. B1.
  5. ^The details below regarding the impugn between Macmillan and the ACLS are from Scott.
  6. ^"The Scribner Reference of American Lives," Gale Cengage Learning website.

    Accessed 7 Feb. 2021; "Jackson, Kenneth T., Jacques Barzun Professor of History", University University website. Accessed 7 Feb. 2021.

References

  • Dictionary of American Biography

External links