American dictionary of national biography volume

The American National Biography ANB is a volume biographical encyclopedia set that contains about 17, entries [ 1 ] and 20 million words, [ 2 ] first published in by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies. A entry supplement appeared in Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

American dictionary of national biography volume: The Dictionary of National Biography (or

The ANB bills itself as the successor of the Dictionary of American Biographywhich was first published between and It is not, however, a strict superset of this older publication; the selection of topics was made anew. It is commonly available in the reference sections of United States libraries, [ 6 ] [ 7 ] and is available online by subscription see external links.

Inthe American Library Association awarded the American National Biography its Dartmouth Medal [ 8 ] as a reference work of outstanding quality and significance. Leland Prize was awarded for It has been criticized for missing cross references and occasional errors, [ 10 ] and for its cost, which is said to limit availability in poor countries.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Baker-Blatch -- v. Blatchford-Burnet -- v.

American dictionary of national biography volume: American National Biography is the first

Burnett-Clarke, Lewis -- v. Clarke, Mary-DaCosta -- v. Dafora-Dubuclet -- v. Dubuque-Fishbein -- v. Fishberg-Gihon -- v. Gilbert-Hand -- v.

American dictionary of national biography volume: The American National Biography (ANB)

Handerson-Hofmann -- v. Hofstadter-Jepson -- v. Jeremiah-Kurtz -- v. Kurtzman-Lovecraft -- v. The dictionary included no biographies of the living, and some period of residence in the United States was required for inclusion. These twenty volumes had numerous quirks. For example, the entry for Mary Baker Eddy filled eight pages, the entry for Mark Twain only six and a half.

Connecticut and Massachusetts were overrepresented, while Arizona had just one entry. With the passage of time the usefulness of the series as a reference work waned. Ten supplementary volumes were issued, between andeach covering people who had died after the previous supplement. The first eight supplements were produced under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies.

Macmillan acquired the dictionary's publisher Charles Scribner's Sons in In mid Macmillan announced that it would put the old D. Professor Stanley N. Moving away from the traditional views of history as being political, diplomatic, and military history, and embracing perspectives provided by new social history, the ANB captures a wide range of lives—abolitionists, capitalists, cartoonists, suffragettes, scientists, and vaudeville artists.

The biographies were designed to be read for pleasure as well as information, and contributors were encouraged to bring their own points of view to the portraits. The reader, researcher, or those merely browsing are helped by bibliographies at the end of each entry and five comprehensive indexes that categorize the contents by occupations and realms of renown, by place of birth in the United States, by place of birth outside the United States, by subject entry, and by contributor.

John H. The center, which will have an editor and advisers, will enable continuing revisions to the ANB.