h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have said, they follow me home. This is one of the odder stories. This is the 'Lincoln Library of Essential Information': http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Library-Essential-Information-Kinsella/dp/B000ZW47J8

This is its history: http://www.thelincolnlibrary.com/aboutlincoln.html

My part in this. While working on the bibliography for a lengthy report in ninth grade, I asked my English teacher how to list a book by a publishing company. At first she did not see that I meant written by the publishing company and not the company by which it was published. She asked the title of the book. I told her it was the 'Lincoln Library of Essential Information'. To which she informed me that was such a rare book that it was very unlikely I would ever see one. I answered that I had one on the shelf in my room for five years and that was only because my brothers had it in their room for years before that.

That old green covered book had been my aunt's when she was in school. My grandmother who did not read English (only French), had bought it from a door to door salesman in the 1940's. The red covered copy we found in a box of books given to us by my other grandmother when I was in fifth grade was a few years older.

I dragged two co workers, after work, to the annual book bazaar at LSU around 1996. One went for the children's book the other searched through reference books. I found a few things and went in search of the friends. We did a few laps of tables on the other side of the mini barn and there amongst law books and encyclopedias was an old copy of that now very familiar book being ignored by everyone in the building. I opened it to find a huge price tag of $2.00, picked it up and brought it home with my other purchases. We stopped by the store where we worked to switch cars and went in for a few minutes. Another co worker went through my stack of books. He opened the 'Licoln Library' recognizing it as he had seen the other copies on my book shelves, he read the inscription on the inside of the front cover which was a name and address then commented 'my mother grew up on that street, a few houses down, in the 1950's. I wonder if she knows this person'.

Evangeline, the "Lincoln Library" has been updated from time to time. The latest one that I see at Amazon is a 1978 edition (used, of course). It changed its name to "New Lincoln Library Encyclopedia." I see a 1985 edition of that. There was also a series of volumes on sports champions. I don'tknow if they are still in the business of publishing anything....

The history link explains how there are 'Lincoln Library' editions of various topics. And, there are two volume sets of the 'Essential Information' editions from the 1960's.

What I have are three separate huge single volumes of 'The Lincoln Library of Essential Information' dated before 1941. The one with someone's address and phone number on the inside cover lists their phone number as 7922. That predates the 7 digit phone numbers in Baton Rouge.

The intro: 'The Lincoln Library of Essential Information has been prepared wit two controlling ideas constantly in view. One has been to embody in a single volume the largest amount of helpful information to the average reader that has ever been placed between two covers. The other aim has been to select, condense, arrange and verify this material with a degree of thoroughness and accuracy much greater than has ever been attained in any work of similar scope.'.

Does that last line sound kind of familiar?

Yes, it does, now that you mention it. We had it in the reference section of the library I worked in. It was probably updated through the 1985 "New Lincoln Library" edition, but I don't know if any editions of it are still there.

One-volume encyclopedias have an interesting history. The one I rely on for my home collection is the "New Columbia Encyclopedia," though I should get a more up to date one. It's revised every seven years or so. Larousse tried a one-volume combination dictionary and encyclopedia about 20 years ago, but it didn't sell well enough to issue revised versions. Random House also tried a one-volume encyclopedia. I don't know if they continue to issue revised versions.

These books come real close to being 'the guide' itself for their time.

The coverage of history, the sciences, biography, literature, and other topics is quite useful. They do predate WWII, but the biography section has people that updated encyclopedias do not. I was once assigned as a subject for a short report, Marie Francois Xavier Bichat. Try finding him in the newest edition of Compton's.

My father bought one set of encyclopedias... in 1957 and an almanac for each of the next 20 something years.

The major encyclopedias practice something called "continuous revision," though it's something of a misnomer. Only a small fraction of the articles are revised for any particular year.

The one-volume encyclopedias are updated every seven to ten years, and the new editions are thoroughly updated.