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Encyclopedias used to be a big deal
When I was a kid, there were traveling salesmen who went from house to house selling encyclopedias. I am sure that many of those offers were for vastly overpriced editions that involved long-term payment options that the buyer would soon regret. But back in the fifties, America wanted to believe that the knowledge contained in an encyclopedia would lift every child into academic and societal success. I saw commentary on the internet today that said that Elon Musk read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica when he was nine years old. My reaction to that was puzzled. Didn’t everyone read an encyclopedia as soon as they could read? My encyclopedia was the World Book Encyclopedia, probably sold by a traveling salesman. I read every volume of those books repeatedly because there was nothing else in the house to read and I wanted to figure out what life was all about.
You know what else I studied? The dictionary. We had an ancient leather-bound dictionary that was at least twelve inches thick. It had tiny ornate drawings for each entry, and I was mesmerized by the sheer amount of knowledge that was displayed.
Have I ever mentioned that I am a killer Scrabble player? I have forgotten far too many of the bittersweet memories of my childhood but I remember most of those obscure words that begin with Y or Q.
I regret that when my wife and I had children, we forgot to buy an encyclopedia.
Published in General
I have so much computer stuff and electronic stuff, a set of encyclopedias wouldn’t even make a dent, as it were.
Yep, encyclopedias and dictionaries.
When We were kids every Sunday was spent at Great Grandma Mary’s home for lunch and Cowboys football.
While all the Family (Grand Parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends. 40-50 of Us every week) were screaming and cheering Me and My cousin would be reading Great Grandma Mary’s books.
One Sunday, when We were about 9 years old, She told Us two that We could pick 2 books to take home. My cousin picked the biggest two He could find, regardless. I picked Her two dictionaries.
Grandma Mary, “No, son, You can’t have those. Those are My dictionaries.”
Me, “You said, ‘Any 2 books.'”
Grandma Mary, “I did, but I didn’t mean those two.”
Me, “I’m pretty sure if You looked up the word ‘dictionary’ it’s gonna say ‘it’s a book.'”
She eventually relented.
Those two dictionaries are sitting on My coffee table now.
Wanted a set as well- got lucky in the early 90s- a salesman retired & a used book store sold me his demo set (only the index was out of the plastic) for about $100. Truth is I haven’t read many of them- but did alternate editions of some of the books in the past. I got rid of the other editions and kept these. Still have many to go- but don’t forget the motto of the founder of Faber College- “knowledge is good”. More importantly, they can’t cancel my editions or change the pronouns in them.
Or simply say they’re no longer available to you, even though you’ve paid, which can happen with Amazon for example if their licensing for something expires.
Nobody has mentioned the set we had, The Book of Knowledge. I forget how many volumes with an annual every year. Yes, I read them all and found them fascinating.
Our family had something called the Golden Book Encyclopedia hanging around the house, which I read voraciously several times. Then they bought a World Book Encyclopedia when I was 11. I remember we were watching some show (I think it was Marcus Welby, M.D) where they brought up V.D. I hadn’t yet had “the talk” with my parents (I never actually would have “the talk”), so I asked my mom what V.D. was and she refused to tell me, said we’d talk about it when I was older. So when she wasn’t looking, I looked it up in the encyclopedia, which explained it nicely and included a reference to their article on sex. That, I’m afraid, is how I learned about how sex worked.
I am so happy they bought those encyclopedias.
We had a World Book Encyclopedia set. Did any of you get the annual supplements? They were fascinating as World Book revised certain articles, added to others, noted deaths during the year. My parents kept getting them till I graduated from high school in the mid-70’s (yes, I am old). I looked forward to them every year.
My mother thought it was the best investment they made as I continually read through them. When they sold their business she became a World Book Encyclopedia sales woman. She bought each one of us children a set and my children did use them a bit but they came of age when the internet was taking off. We were about to throw out our set a few years ago when daughter bought a new house with lots of built in bookcases. She wanted them for the aesthetics of how they looked on her bookshelf. But the grands do find them interesting.
During college I did a report on the differences between the various brands of encyclopedias. It was very eye-opening how different encyclopedias described the same topics. For a fresh-faced frosh I got a quick lesson in academic bias.
I was trying to remember what sets we had, but couldn’t find photographic evidence. This one sounds familiar, though. If I could find images of sample pages from the early-mid 50s I’d know for sure. We did have a few year’s worth of annual updates.
Time to get started!
Yep, there used to be door to door salesmen and catalogs. And once you bought your set of Encyclopedias of course you had to buy a nice wooden book case from the the same vendor to store and impressively present them! But Encyclopedias were in fact a great source of information that people searched prior to internet search engines.
Part of me thinks we need to keep physical old texts of Encyclopedias in order to preserve knowledge and reference that can’t be so easily retroactively edited out in digital formats.
Your title is a bit of Americana nostalgia.
Here’s a picture circa December 1963 with the World Book Encyclopedia set at the left of the picture. I think we still had the blonde bookshelf up until about 5 years ago. The encyclopedias are long gone. The horse is on display in my house yet.
We have Tuesday Trivia at lunchtime (on Tuesdays) at work. I’m frequently asked by my [almost all younger] co-workers how I know so much stuff. I haven’t broken down and told them I used to read the encyclopedia for fun. Usually when they ask “How did you know that?” I just reply “how did you NOT know that?”.
Except when we’re doing 80s trivia. Then I point out that it’s not really trivia, it’s just my life.
This isn’t for “trivia” as such, but I’ll let you in on a little secret if you ever play “bands with names of animals in their name.”
Nobody ever guesses “Dr Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band.” I’ve won a few rounds with that one.
Someone at X mentioned how much he learned from the book his parents left lying around the house..and said he couldn’t think of an Internet-based equivalent.
Interesting point.
My favorite moment in the entire run of the series Murphy Brown was when the gang agreed to compete in a College Bowl competition. In practice sessions it quickly becomes clear they’re going to get creamed, and anchor Jim Dial asks for some advice on what to do. They guy coaching them says “If you get asked about a Nobel Prize winner, say Linus Pauling. He’s the only person to win more than one.”
In the actual competition, the emcee starts a question “This Nobel prize Winner…” and Jim hits his buzzer and yells “Linus Pauling!”. The emcee looks surprised and says “That’s correct!”.
Years ago, @jameslileks on Northern Alliance Radio network was talking with probably Mitch Berg, about how the contents of encyclopedias seemed to center around the letter M. And then the talk got to how over time, eventually every word might start with M, and then eventually everything would BE (multiple) letters M… it was a short bit, but pretty funny.
At some point, all speech just becomes letters M, difference in how you pronounce…
Like Zathras…
Iam confused. The Atlas or the Dog?
When I was a kid, I was the oldest teen anyone had ever met. When everyone else was downstairs dancing and acting the fool in the rumpus room. I would curl up in the living and read through the encyclopedia set.
Its the saddest casualty of the internet world. Nobody has an encyclopedia anymore.
We had “world book” encyclopedias – they used to come out with a year end addition which would be a condensed news of the year
Buster lived many years longer but the Atlas is no more. If you’ve never had one, a young Labrador retriever is a destructive chewing machine. My wife put Tabasco sauce on the wheelbarrow handles to save them from complete destruction.
“Danger, Mr. Robinson!” Remember that nature abhors a vacuum!
This is interesting. We’re all familiar with the usual lifespan of any single thread. This one keeps going with a certain vitality.
Is it a surprise that the denizens of Ricochet are voracious readers, and have been all their lives?
A question for the Ricochet logicians:
I looked in the Truth Table for implication to see if that assertion is True. The premise is False and the conclusion is True.
So the assertion is True.
Right?
Oh man, you brought back memories of 5th grade . . .
Remember the Weekly Reader? How about Highlights for Children?
And what was that magazine in the dentist’s office?
Highlights for Children, Jack & Jill, Boys’ Life … there were probably others. I usually brought a book.
I don’t remember seeing Highlights for Children anywhere else.
Boy’s Life.
EDIT: I did not see that #Percival had already mentioned Boy’s Life in #55. It was a great magazine for many years.
Goofus & Gallant.