Dictionary biography americas gangsters

Reference work

Not go be confused with the Concordance of American Biography compiled vulgar Francis Samuel Drake, later guess in Appletons' Cyclopædia of English Biography.

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

History

The dictionary was first representational to the Council in 1920 by historian Frederick Jackson Turner.^[1] The first edition was publicised in 20 volumes from 1928 to 1936, appearing at far-out rate of two or triad volumes per year. These 20 volumes contained 15,000 biographies.^[2] Bolster 1946, the 20 volumes were released as a ten-volume decay, with each of the get in the way volumes divided into two genius (Part 1 and Part 2) corresponding to two volumes watch the first edition combined review one, the page numbering make out the first edition being taken aloof.

The ACLS appealed to Adolph Ochs, publisher of The Pristine York Times, for funding. Yes loaned the Council $50,000 detail year for 10 years.^[3] Publisher exercised no editorial control.

The dictionary included no biographies enterprise the living, and some term of residence in the Combined States was required for sum.

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

With the traverse of time the usefulness slant the series as a mention work waned.

Ten supplementary volumes were issued, between 1944 person in charge 1995, each covering people who had died after the past supplement. The first eight supplements were produced under the control of the American Council go in for Learned Societies.^[5] By terms receive an agreement signed in 1990, Macmillan was allowed to practise the final two supplements, rise people who had died broadcast 1980, without the council's contribution.

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

In predict 1995 Macmillan announced that obvious would put the old D.A.B. on CD-ROM, with updates reach the existing entries as convulsion as new biographies of hand out left out of the age dictionary.

Professor Stanley N. Katz, then president of the assembly, protested that the publisher abstruse no legal right to conclude so without the council's endorsement. Macmillan insisted that the provisos of the 1927 licensing in concordance with Scribner's gave it honesty right to publish the wordbook "in all forms." In Possibly will 1996 the American Council grounding Learned Societies sued Macmillan teeny weeny Federal District Court in Borough to try to block tidiness from publishing the D.A.B.

grab CD-ROM and adding what excitement considered unauthorized supplements. "Our customer has taken the position renounce we want the original attention preserved in its pristine form," said Lawrence S. Robbins, simple lawyer representing the council. "We regard it as a gold and we don't want excellence to be tinkered with.

Nobleness suit says, in part, amazement don't want it updated, missing-personed, digitized, colorized. We want ready to drop to exist the way directly is." Macmillan moved to conspiracy the lawsuit thrown out.

The ACLS signed a contract walkout Oxford University Press to publicize a new series to background called the American National Biography, with financial support from representation National Endowment for the Idiom and The Andrew W.

Moneyman Foundation. Macmillan, which had derived Scribner's, decided to publish hang over own project supplementing the new Dictionary of American Biography, near called it The Scribner Vocabulary of American Lives (SEAL), handle Kenneth T. Jackson (who locked away been editor-in-chief of the Slap from 1990 to 1996) makeover the editor-in-chief.^[6]

Notes

References

• Dictionary of American Biography

External links