We have just had a holiday weekend in Glasgow and we spent it near Dunbar on the other side of Edinburgh. There happened to be a bookstall in Dunbar high street where I came across a chubby fat tome called The Modern Encyclopaedia for Children - A companion to school work and out-of-school interests for all young people who wish to know more. It was published by Odhams Books Ltd in 1966.
The How to Use page begins with this fine sentence: 'An encyclopaedia is like a well-filled cupboard. Every page is a shelf stocked with information arranged for your convenience'. With all its advantages, you can't say that about the internet. I have been flicking through the encyclopaedia and it is packed full of great stuff: from embroidery stitches to biographies of famous people. It also has illustrations to add to its well-stocked facts. Just look at the opening page for E with an illustration of an ear.
This is just the sort of book any grandparent worth their salt would buy for their grandchildren. But publishers don't think there is a market for this kind of book. I bet packaged up like Dangerous Book for Boys and all that nostalgia genre like i before e (except after c): Old School Ways to Remember Stuff and it would be a hit.
Let's bear in mind how much skill it takes to condense a subject into such short pithy entries. This is the kind of stuff dictionary and reference folk can do. But as they are going the way of coopers and blacksmiths, we must just mourn their passing. The trouble with the internet is that it is infinite. You end up overwhelmed with too much information, whereas flicking through an encyclopaedia takes you on a journey of discovery.
1 comment:
As a child THE MODERN ENCYCLOPAEDIOA FOR CHILDREN published by Odhams was my constant companion, and I still have my copy today. I used to read frm ome entry toanother by way of th cross-references.
By the way the book was first publishd in 1950, not 1966, and it was in the 50s that I got my copy for Christmas. What a wonderful present it was, and the presnt dog-eared condition of th book is a testament to its value to me as a child
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