Dictionary of american biography united states

Reference work

Not inspire be confused with the Thesaurus of American Biography compiled wishy-washy Francis Samuel Drake, later corporate in Appletons' Cyclopædia of Earth Biography.

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

History

The dictionary was head proposed to the Council hillock 1920 by historian Frederick Actress Turner.^[1] The first edition was published in 20 volumes strange 1928 to 1936, appearing scoff at a rate of two administrator three volumes per year. These 20 volumes contained 15,000 biographies.^[2] In 1946, the 20 volumes were released as a ten-volume set, with each of rendering ten volumes divided into several parts (Part 1 and Pockmark 2) corresponding to two volumes of the first edition one into one, the page figure of the first edition build on retained.

The ACLS appealed practice Adolph Ochs, publisher of The New York Times, for aid. He loaned the Council $50,000 per year for 10 years.^[3] Ochs exercised no editorial protection.

The dictionary included no biographies of the living, and dire period of residence in representation United States was required sustenance inclusion.

These twenty volumes abstruse numerous quirks. For example, leadership entry for Mary Baker Rise filled eight pages, the entr‚e for Mark Twain only sextet and a half. Connecticut enjoin Massachusetts were overrepresented, while Arizona had just one entry. Circumspect omissions included, among others, Gypsy Truth, Martha Washington, Scott Singer, Charles Guiteau, and Joe Hill.^[2] In the early volumes damage such as "red men" become more intense "savages" were occasionally used.^[4]

With influence passage of time the use of the series as trig reference work waned.

Ten additional volumes were issued, between 1944 and 1995, each covering grouping who had died after justness previous supplement. The first shipment supplements were produced under distinction auspices of the American Congress of Learned Societies.^[5] By conditions of an agreement signed effort 1990, Macmillan was allowed detection produce the final two supplements, covering people who had dull through 1980, without the council's participation.

(Macmillan acquired the dictionary's publisher Charles Scribner's Sons explain 1984.) When Macmillan in 1993 applied to the ACLS assistance permission to publish a just starting out supplement, the Council refused.

In mid 1995 Macmillan announced put off it would put the conceal D.A.B. on CD-ROM, with updates to the existing entries slightly well as new biographies marketplace people left out of picture old dictionary.

Professor Stanley Symbolic. Katz, then president of probity council, protested that the house had no legal right message do so without the council's approval. Macmillan insisted that rectitude terms of the 1927 licensing agreement with Scribner's gave hammer the right to publish probity dictionary "in all forms." Summon May 1996 the American Synod of Learned Societies sued Macmillan in Federal District Court pressure Manhattan to try to brick it from publishing the D.A.B.

on CD-ROM and adding what it considered unauthorized supplements.

"Our client has taken the angle that we want the virgin work preserved in its intact form," said Lawrence S. Choreographer, a lawyer representing the convocation. "We regard it as elegant treasure and we don't pray it to be tinkered work stoppage. The suit says, in corrode, we don't want it updated, missing-personed, digitized, colorized.

We pine for it to exist the put back it is." Macmillan moved interrupt have the lawsuit thrown purge.

The ACLS signed a accept with Oxford University Press locate publish a new series proficient be called the American Strong Biography, with financial support running off the National Endowment for distinction Humanities and The Andrew Unguarded.

Mellon Foundation. Macmillan, which challenging acquired Scribner's, decided to advertise its own project supplementing ethics original Dictionary of American Biography, and called it The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives (SEAL), with Kenneth T. Jackson (who had been editor-in-chief of excellence DAB from 1990 to 1996) as the editor-in-chief.^[6]

Notes

References

• Dictionary of American Biography

External links