All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopaedia by Simon Garfield

Author:Simon Garfield [Garfield, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781474610803
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2022-09-07T16:00:00+00:00

M

METHOD

We do not have the guidance notes given to contributors for the Eleventh Edition of Britannica, but we do have them for the next major set published eighteen years later in 1929.* It’s a revealing document, part style sheet, part commissioning form, part sincere editorial cheerleading. And as a statement of intent it provides a rare insight into encyclopaedic purpose early in the twentieth century.

Produced at Britannica’s London headquarters in High Holborn in the spring of 1927, it began by justifying why a new ‘epoch-making’ edition was necessary. ‘It is planned to perform a service for the average intelligent man or woman that has never been done before. It has been attempted only in part, and then inadequately and intermittently.’

The proposed service was the continuation of a familiar policy: the further broadening of accessibility, the further diminution of the ivory tower. The editorial policy was ‘a result of careful study … extending over a period of more than a year’, the twelve-page leaflet began.

The last few generations, and more particularly the last half century, have seen an increase in knowledge beyond all precedent. While the man of to-day does know more than his forebears of one or two centuries ago, he is relatively much more ignorant. The reason is simple. There has been no organised attempt to present the results of modern research in a form that would be comprehensible to him. This is an age of specialisation, and with a few exceptions specialists have been content to write for other specialists rather than inform the public. Consequently a vast section of what is known to-day remains a sealed book to the average person. This situation is one that has caused lively concern to many students of our contemporary life. It is a situation which the new edition of the Britannica will be designed to meet.*

To bridge the gap between the average reader and modern knowledge, the editors drew up a fifteen-point plan. In summary:

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