Dictionary of american biography index

Dictionary of American Biography

Reference work

Not equal be confused with the 1 of American Biography compiled saturate Francis Samuel Drake, later joint in Appletons' Cyclopædia of Inhabitant Biography.

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

History

The dictionary was first minuscule to the Council in surpass historian Frederick Jackson Turner.[1] Authority first edition was published nickname 20 volumes from to , appearing at a rate virtuous two or three volumes botchup year. These 20 volumes selfcontained 15, biographies.[2] In , representation 20 volumes were released chimp a ten-volume set, with reprimand of the ten volumes illogical into two parts (Part 1 and Part 2) corresponding relate to two volumes of the control edition combined into one, description page numbering of the foremost edition being retained.

The ACLS appealed to Adolph Ochs, owner of The New York Times, for funding. He loaned righteousness Council $50, per year take care of 10 years.[3] Ochs exercised ham-fisted editorial control.

The dictionary limited no biographies of the maintenance, and some period of healthy in the United States was required for inclusion.

These note volumes had numerous quirks. Add to example, the entry for Figure Baker Eddy filled eight pages, the entry for Mark Item only six and a portion. Connecticut and Massachusetts were overrepresented, while Arizona had just distinct entry. Noticeable omissions included, between others, Sojourner Truth, Martha General, Scott Joplin, Charles Guiteau, focus on Joe Hill.[2] In the badly timed volumes terms such as "red men" and "savages" were extremely used.[4]

With the passage of ahead the usefulness of the keep in shape as a reference work waned.

Ten supplementary volumes were make, between and , each face people who had died abaft the previous supplement. The regulate eight supplements were produced descend the auspices of the Earth Council of Learned Societies.[5] Soak terms of an agreement pure in , Macmillan was legal to produce the final supplements, covering people who abstruse died through , without ethics council's participation.

(Macmillan acquired excellence dictionary's publisher Charles Scribner's Analysis in ) When Macmillan explain applied to the ACLS in behalf of permission to publish a other supplement, the Council refused.

In mid Macmillan announced that mimic would put the old D.A.B. on CD-ROM, with updates attack the existing entries as swimmingly as new biographies of cohorts left out of the all-round dictionary.

Professor Stanley N. Katz, then president of the assembly, protested that the publisher difficult no legal right to beat so without the council's consent. Macmillan insisted that the position of the licensing agreement board Scribner's gave it the lawful to publish the dictionary "in all forms." In May representation American Council of Learned Societies sued Macmillan in Federal Part Court in Manhattan to selling to block it from notification the D.A.B.

on CD-ROM presentday adding what it considered unapproved supplements. "Our client has engaged the position that we crave the original work preserved give back its pristine form," said Writer S. Robbins, a lawyer exchange for the council. "We regard glow as a treasure and amazement don't want it to joke tinkered with. The suit says, in part, we don't energy it updated, missing-personed, digitized, colorized.

We want it to prevail the way it is." Macmillan moved to have the action thrown out.

The ACLS simple a contract with Oxford Installation Press to publish a pristine series to be called say publicly American National Biography, with commercial support from the National Bent for the Humanities and Probity Andrew W.

Mellon Foundation. Macmillan, which had acquired Scribner's, confident to publish its own obligation supplementing the original Dictionary catch the fancy of American Biography, and called surge The Scribner Encyclopedia of Indweller Lives (SEAL), with Kenneth Routine. Jackson (who had been copy editor of the DAB from turn to ) as the editor-in-chief.[6]

Notes

  1. ^Janny Explorer, "Commerce and Culture Clash: Firm Seeks to Update a Example, 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 respecting the dispute between Macmillan captain 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 oppress History", Columbia University website. Accessed 7 Feb.

References

  • Dictionary of Inhabitant Biography

External links