Annotation [Аннотация]:
tt9_995_251
Encyclopedia, 16 volumes
tt9_995_266
Address 1,7,2,1,3-4.
Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia and Fact-Index: Interesting – Accurate – Up-to-Date. Vol. 1.- Chicago: F.E. Compton & Company, 1950. – 544 p. +
[Снабженная иллюстрациями Энциклопедия и Факт-Индекс Комптона. – США, 1950. – 544 с. +]
EDITOR’S PREFACE
WHEN the first edition of this work was published in 1922, its purpose was plainly set forth. This was, in brief, to provide for home, school, and library use an encyclopedia that would add to the basic requirements of a sound reference work certain definite educational values.
The basic requirements are, of course, accuracy, scholarship, and com-prehensive scope. But it is evident that these qualities alone, however well they may satisfy the trained student in search of specific facts, fall consid¬erably short of the needs of laymen and, particularly, of young readers.
We knew in preparing the first edition that many a boy and girl would find in its pages a first real introduction to many a vital subject and many a great field of knowledge. Whether the incentive to open the books came from the suggestion of parents, from the requirements of school work, or from the child's own natural curiosity, upon these pages would rest a responsibility greater than merely offering bare answers to isolated ques¬tions. They must arouse interest, they must give color and significance and due emphasis to the facts, they must relate them to other essential facts; in short, they must give more than the young reader has the expe¬rience to ask for. Therein would lie their educational value, their power to stimulate thought and to enrich the mind of youth.
This was and still remains the view, the philosophy, if you please, of those responsible for the writing and publishing of these volumes. They put this belief into every page and before the thought of making and selling books for profit. More consciously and conscientiously than ever before their combined aim was a work, not only readable, but bound to be read at whatever page you open it. What we undertook to make may be summed up thus: An encyclopedic, alphabetically arranged survey of the whole field of knowledge, presented with such freshness and vividness, and embellished with such a wealth of illustration, that it should be as (I) readable as a story-book, without anywhere sacrificing completeness or accuracy.
To put it in another way, our governing purpose was fourfold: (i) accu-racy and breadth of view; (2) interesting treatment, obtained by focusing the attention on the most striking, salient, and picturesque aspects of each topic discussed; (3) simplicity, clearness, and directness of language, with¬out insulting the reader's intelligence by trying to "write down" to him; (4) an abundance of illustrations which visualize and dramatize the text.
It is gratifying to know that the intervening years since the first edition appeared have confirmed, to a greater degree than we had dared expect, our faith in our original purpose. Without boast we may say that these books have helped to transform public and professional opinion about the service of encyclopedias in home and school. Educators and librarians have given us invaluable support and cooperation in extending the useful¬ness of these books into new fields and multiplying their applications to school and reference problems.
Out of the day-by-day test of these volumes in the hands of children, of parents, and of teachers have come innumerable constructive suggestions. The maintenance of a permanent editorial and art staff, continually engaged in revising the volumes and keeping them up to date, has made it possible to take almost immediate advantage of these suggestions — a rare privilege for the encyclopedia editor. To meet particularly the grow¬ing school requirements for supplementary material in the social and physical sciences, the work has been expanded by hundreds of pages. The original list of contributors, special writers, and departmental editors was a roll which would honor any encyclopedia. It has since been enlarged by the participation of many other distinguished men and women.
An extraordinary amount of editorial supervision and of cooperation between these many contributors was necessary to coordinate their work, to obtain a style and method of treatment which should be uniformly simple and clear, to reconcile the varying views of different authorities, and to avoid conflicting statements in articles relating to the same sub¬ject. Many an article represents five or six revisions and the combined (II) effort of as many scholars and skilful writers. For the sake of fairness and honesty, therefore, no article bears the name or initials of a contributor. Instead, the whole body of contributors and editors has been gathered to¬gether into a single alphabetical list on the following pages, with an in¬dication of the subject or field for which each individual is chiefly responsible.
In carrying forward my work as editor-in-chief, I may be permitted a few words of commendation and appreciation to all the scholars who have responded promptly and heartily to requests for their aid and coopera¬tion, to the staff of writers, artists, and map-makers who have labored in season and out with zeal and unwavering fidelity to the ideals set at the beginning. Above all I pay tribute gladly to the unremitting labors of the late Dr. Samuel Bannister Harding and of his successor, the late Athol Ewart Rollins. More than any other persons they have put the stamp of their scholarship and integrity on these volumes.
And I speak not only for myself but for the whole staff when I say that no group engaged in a similar project has had more consistent and loyal support than we have had from the publishers of this work. They have shared our every purpose as here expressed, and they have never counted the cost of any plan or request that would make these volumes more nearly realize this new conception of an educational work.
Guy Stanton Ford,
Editor-in-Chief
