COLUMBIA ENCYCLOPEDIA

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 4, 1950

Perhaps the best evidence I can offer of the value of this one volume encyclopedia is the worn condition of the First Edition, which has been in daily use ever since it was put on my shelf in 1935. Statistically speaking, the new edition has 10,000 more entries (check -- I found everything I remembered missing in the First Edition); there are one million more words and 300 more pages; there are 3,500 articles on living people. I have found it frequently a more efficient Biblical concordance than the Concordance itself; a gazeteer that supplies much of the material associated with atlases; a good reference tool for history, ancient and modern. There is enormous scope of new material on areas made familiar by World War II -- USSR, Asia, Indonesia, the Middle East, as well as excellent concrete data on the war itself. Individually, the articles, both long and short, are well done and easily read. Answer to the need of households with limited space, where the old type many-volumed encyclopedia has to be banished; to the budget limitations of school and small public libraries. And don't overlook it as an acceptable commencement or wedding gift.

Pub Date: Dec. 4, 1950

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1950

Categories: NONFICTION