Collier's Encyclopedia
Collier's Encyclopedia was a general encyclopedia first published by P.F. Collier & Son, and in print from 1902 to 1997. Meant for high school and college students, it had 20 volumes by 1950; by the time it finished its run in 1997 it had 24 volumes with over 23,000 entries. The quality of the writing - it had an extensive list of well-known, credentialed authors - placed Collier's Encyclopedia alongside Encyclopedia Americana and Encyclopædia Britannica as one of the great English language general encyclopedias of the 20th century.
Contents
History
Peter Fenelon Collier (1849-1909), an Irish immigrant to the United States, was a magazine publisher at the end of the 19th century, having made a fortune with his Collier's Weekly magazine (1888-1957); his publications were known for the excellence of their articles, illustrations, and in many cases the investigative journalism exposing corruption and fraud in high places[1]. Collier's publishing empire also included books; he had substantial success with his "Collier's Library" of novels, as well as the rights to publish Chamber's Encyclopedia in the 1890s from Great Britain.
In 1902 Collier released his own encyclopedia, a 16-volume work entitled Collier's New Encyclopedia. This edition would enjoy a 27 year run, despite a reduction in size to ten volumes. Replacing it was the 11 volume National Encyclopedia, which ran until 1950, when it in turn was replaced with the 20-volume Collier's Encyclopedia with Bibliography and Index. A major revision of this work, while keeping the same format and look (black with red and gold trim) would expand it to 24 volumes in 1962, a look it would maintain until the late 1990's. Sold primarily by the door-to-door salesman, the sets would come with the option of a two-volume dictionary, the Junior Classics (a ten volume set of children's literature)[2], and a bookcase.
Structure
Like its previous editions, Collier’s Encyclopedia was arranged in an alphabetical format, but not in individual volumes specific to a letter, such as in World Book; this arrangement kept each volume uniform in size. Like other printed encyclopedias, it was supplemented by annual year books.
The editorial board insisted that the encyclopedia be a "scholarly, systematic, continuously revised summary of the knowledge that is most significant to mankind."[3] To that end the first volume contains an extensive preface, of which 76 pages are devoted to a list of some 5,000 editors and contributors who are experts in their fields of study, the majority of which possess a masters degree or higher. They in turn are established authors with either books or peer-reviewed publications and papers, with a complete list of the works they have cited contained in a bibliography of 11,500 titles within the last volume; the editorial board explained within the preface that the bibliography had to be works commonly available in public, school, and collegiate libraries across North America, with the intent that the student/reader can do extensive research on any given topic beyond the scope of the encyclopedia with relative ease. To further establish credibility, nearly all of the articles are signed, enabling the reader to cross-reference the author with the list of contributors and the bibliography.
As an educational assistant, Collier's Encyclopedia was written with the consideration of the curricula present in high schools to four-year universities. Although many articles are somewhat brief, many others go into extensive detail. The physical, life, social, and earth sciences, humanities, are all given extensive treatment; some subjects, like algebra, are also written in a manner as to teach the student how to solve problems.
End
Throughout its run, Collier's Encyclopedia has had several publishers. The original publisher, P.F. Collier & Son Company, was bought by Crowell Publishing Company in 1918, which through additional acquisitions became Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. This company in turn was bought by Macmillan in 1960.
Collier’s was also among the first major encyclopedias to have its content available for the home computer in the early 1990’s. Sierra Online marketed Collier’s first as a text-only work; this was followed up by Microsoft gaining the rights to use Collier’s as part of its Encarta, both of which were marketed in CD format.
Collier’s was last published in print in 1997, in part due to weak sales as well as the growing use of the internet as a source for online learning and information. Since then the rights to publish the work have been acquired by Atlas Editions; as of 2020, no word was given as to whether or not the encyclopedia would be modernized and made available online.[4]
References
- ↑ https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44325/44325-h/44325-h.htm
- ↑ https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/metabook?id=jrclassics
- ↑ preface, 1988 edition (pg. v)
- ↑ https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/08/the-death-of-the-encylcopedia/
- Halsey, William D. and Johnston, Bernard, et al: Collier's Encyclopedia with Bibliography and Index (1988); Macmillan Educational Company, New York.
