Encyclopædia Americana (Lieber)

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The original Encyclopædia Americana was published in the United States beginning in the late 1820s and continued with new editions and supplements into the 1850s. Other than the name, it had no connection with the Encyclopedia Americana that began publishing in 1902 or the Americanized version of the Encyclopædia Britannica published in the 1880s.

The Encyclopædia Americana. A popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time; including a copious collection of original articles in American biography; on the basis of the 7th ed. of the German Conversations-Lexicon was founded by German-born

Low's Encyclopedia
, of 1805–1811.

Lieber presented the idea of an American encyclopedia, based on

Conversations-Lexikon, to Carey, Lea & Carey of Philadelphia in January 1828, then the largest publishing house in the United States. Although he invoked the name of the German encyclopedia, he explained that this work would not be simply a translation but be a distinctively American reference work, omitting much of the European matter. The publishers were not at first receptive to the idea, but Lieber had made numerous contacts with American intellectuals who convinced the publishers to commit to the project. Several weeks later they replied with their agreement to the project. "However, instead of being granted a royalty on sets sold, he would be compensated by payments totaling $20,000, and from this sum he must defray editorial costs, such as fees for translators and contributors and salaries of editorial assistants. This may have been a fair enough proposition for the period, but it would leave Lieber in straitened circumstances when the work was done."[1]

Assisted by

Napoleon Bonaparte, whose contributions on French topics include a 25,000-word biography on the former emperor of France, which according to De Kay was the longest biographical article in the Encyclopedia Americana.[1]

The first volume was released September 1829, at the price of $2.50, and quickly sold out. When completed in 1833, the first edition comprised 13 volumes.[2] Despite the success of the Encyclopedia, the Panic of 1837 led the Careys to scale back their catalog and concentrate on medical works. Nevertheless, this work continued to return profits to its owners on a regular basis. Publishing houses across the United States, and even in Canada, would rent or purchase Carey stereotype plates and publish Encyclopedia editions with their own imprints at the foot of the title pages, while retaining the Carey copyright notes on the overleaf, through 1858.[4] In 1846, a supplementary fourteenth volume was issued.[citation needed]

In 1848,

California Gold Rush.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Drake De Kay, . "Encyclopedia Americana, First Edition", Journal of Library History, 3 (1968), p. 205
  2. ^ a b De Kay, Encyclopedia Americana, p. 207
  3. ^ De Kay, Encyclopedia Americana, pp. 206f
  4. ^ De Kay, "Encyclopedia Americana", p. 212
  5. ^ John A. Sutter (November 1857). "Discovery of Gold". Hutchings' California Magazine. Retrieved June 26, 2008.

External links

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