The final edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica has almost sold out after nostalgic readers rushed to acquire their own copies of the 32-volume set, which will be the last ever printed.. ", "Yes", replied General Wood, "Sears, Roebuck should never have acquired it in the first place. How much did Encyclopedia Britannica cost in 1970? (1764). All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. RECOMMENDED: The 10 most intriguing tablets of 2012. In all, there were 344 contributors, including Lord Macaulay, Charles Kingsley, Robert Chambers, the Rev. Many publications will never have a print analog and will only be printed on digital formats.". How much did Encyclopedia Britannica cost in 1970? The advertising was clearly targeted at middle and lower-middle-class people seeking to improve themselves. The long period of time during which this edition was written makes the later volumes more updated than the earlier ones. It was very different from the 11th edition, having fewer volumes and simpler articles, continuing the business strategy of popularizing the Britannica for the American mass market at the expense of its scholarship. contact customer service Supplement to the third edition, 1801, 1803, Supplement to the fifth edition, 1824 (later known as the supplement to the fourth, fifth and sixth editions), A. and C. Black editions (7th9th, 18271901), First American editions (10th14th, 19011973), Tenth edition (supplement to the 9th), 1902-03, Twelfth and thirteenth editions (competing supplements to the eleventh), The degree of M.A. The editors of Encyclopdia Britannica, the world standard in reference since 1768, present the Britannica Global Edition. In my quick search to find an answer, I was surprised to find that they still publish an annual updated sets of encyclopedias, this year's edition like $ 1,200. Those entries are then fact-checked, edited, and copyedited by Britannica editors, a process intended to ensure that the articles meet Britannicas long-held standards for readability and accuracy. Rather than releasing supplemental editions or volumes, new printings would be made every year with only enough copies made to cover the sales for that year. Good riddance! and a somewhat melancholy article on "Love" that persisted in the Britannica for nearly a century (until its 9th edition): As the force of love prevails, sighs grow deeper; a tremor affects the heart and pulse; the countenance is alternately pale and red; the voice is suppressed in the sauces; the eyes grow dim; cold sweats break out; sleep absents itself, at least until the morning; the secretions become disturbed; and a loss of appetite, a hectic fever, melancholy, or perhaps madness, if not death, constitutes the sad catastrophe. It does not have its own title page, but merely follows with pagination continuing from 8996 to 9200. Richard S. Pearle & Co. of Chicago photoengraved some sets in 1891, and added 3 volumes of "American Revisions and additions," the first 2 in 1891 and the third in 1892. Access the world's original book of answers. The second edition was published in 181 numbers from 21 June 1777 to 18 September 1784; these numbers were bound into ten volumes dated 17781783, having 8,595 pages and 340 plates again engraved by Andrew Bell. In 1941, Sears offered the rights to the Britannica as a gift to the University of Chicago. Please select which sections you would like to print: Former managing editor, Encyclopdia Britannica. The appendix also includes 10 plates, namely CCCXIV to CCCXXIII. In 1926, the Britannica released three new volumes covering the history of 19101926, which were intended to supplant those of the twelfth edition. 5. Since the early 1930s, the Britannica has developed several "spin-off" products to leverage its reputation as a reliable reference work and educational tool. The supplements had to be purchased separately. Encyclopdia Britannica, 7th edition, preface. [18] Legal disputes over the copyright of the 3rd edition supplements continued, however, and for this reason a new supplement was written by Constable's company, which was completed in 1824. The index, published in 1861, was 239 pages, and was either bound alone as an unnumbered 22nd volume, or was bound together with volume I, the dissertations volume. [45] Most readers could not predict whether a given subject would be found in Micropdia or the Macropdia; the criteria by which the articles were sorted were not obvious even to scholars,[43] despite Dr. Adler's claims that the sorting followed naturally from the Propdia's outline of all knowledge. As with the 3rd edition, in which title pages were not printed until the set was complete, and all volumes were given title pages dated 1797, title pages for the 4th edition were sent to bookbinders in 1810, dated that year for all volumes. The second edition improved greatly upon the 1st, but is still notable for the large amount of now-archaic information it contained. The five included in volume 1 of the 8th (1853) were authored by Dugald Stewart, James Mackintosh, Richard Whately, John Playfair, and John Leslie, in that order, with the Whately work being a new one. [4] When one British expert expressed surprise to Hooper that so many people would want an outdated encyclopedia, he replied, "They didn't; I made them want it."[4]. ", "Does it make any money?" If the Encyclopdia Britannica shall in any degree counteract the tendency of that pestiferous work, even these two volumes will not be wholly unworthy of your Majesty's attention.[6]. On March 14, 2012, Britannica announced it would not be printing any more sets of its paper version, which accounted for less than 1 percent of its sales, and would instead focus on its DVD and online versions. Under Powell's leadership, the Britannica began to capitalize on its reputation by aggressively developing "spin-offs", such as the 12-volume Britannica Junior for children (published 1934, and revised to 15 volumes in 1947), the historical timeline The March of Man (published 1935, and edited by Albert Bushwell Hart, Isaac J. Cox and Lawrence H. Dawson), the Encyclopdia Britannica World Atlas (published 1942, and prepared by G. Donald Hudson) and 10 Eventful Years, a summary of the national and international events surrounding World War II (19371946). Only 4,000 are left in stock. This was about 210,000 times as fast as the ENIAC - the workhorse of World War II. By comparison, when Wikipedia tells me about Lincolns birthplace, it cites its information with a sourceLincoln scholar David Herbert Donalds 1996 biography of Abe. Thus, the Propdia was intended to be the road-map of all knowledge, within which every fact, technique, and theory could be organized. What are Colliers encyclopedias worth? It was apparently rushed to completion with volume 6, which contained the rest of the alphabet, viz: Constable also produced the sixth edition, which was completed in May, 1823. Two books reprinted almost without change were John Bartlet, The Gentleman Farriers Repository, 5th ed. continue to use the site without a [31], Taken together, the 35 volumes were dubbed the "10th edition". Youre meant to believe what they say because its right there in the bookor, now, online. Of good scholarship, it contained biographies of Americans and geographies of US places, as well as other US interests not mentioned in the main encyclopedia. The supplement was compiled, for the first five volumes, at a pace which would have given it more than the 6 volumes it eventually would consist of; the alphabet from A-M was put into those five. [50] Facing financial pressure, Britannica was bought in 1996 by Swiss financier Jacob Safra for $135 million, a fraction of its book value. The Britannica explicitly positioned itself as a conservative publication in reaction to the radical French Encyclopdie of Diderot published between 1751 and 1766. December 2, 2014. In addition to American unauthorized copies, there were American supplements which were written to be appended to authorized copies of Britannica. How much did a set of encyclopedias cost? the 1951 Encyclopedia Britannica world atlas is worth about $125 australian dollars to the right buyer, so be wise! It can be seen[citation needed] that the 9th and 11th editions were massively better-sellers than previous editions. Great use was made of the new ability to print large graphic illustrations on the same pages as the text, as opposed to limiting illustrations to separate copperplates. Print. The last part of the 10th volume was a supplement that brought the work up to date and corrected errors. A weekly digest of Monitor views and insightful commentary on major events. The Encyclopedia as known up to 2012 was incurring unsustainable losses and the print editions were ended, but it continues on the Internet.[1][2]. ", General Wood did not reply immediately but walked to his car. The number of topics indexed by the Britannica has fluctuated from 500,000 (1985, the same as in 1954) to 400,000 (1989,1991) to 700,000 in the 2007 print version. Black was able to hold costs to roughly 75,655. By. Sometimes called the 1911 Encyclopdia Britannica, this edition is still highly regarded for its lucid explanations of scholarly subjects. Yet even as publishing industry has created more digital products, it has struggled with financial losses, and Cauz admitted to a "long road to profitability" for many publishers. And Roundtree says a fine set of 11th Edition Britannicas can command as much as $3,000. Superficially, the Propdia's Outline of Knowledge was simplified for easier use. [4], The 14th edition was published in September 1929, and had 23 volumes with a one-volume Index that also contained a complete atlas. It first flirted with digital publishing in the 1970s, published a version for computers in 1981 for LexisNexis subscribers and first posted to the Internet in 1994. Some long articles were carried over from the 7th edition, but most were completely re-written, and new articles by illustrious contributors were added. Obviously, you'll probably never see results like that again, but these numbers still show that art can be a powerful financial asset. ix. The most notable example was Scotland (184.5 pages), which covered Scottish history up to the union with the crown of England in 1603 (Britain, at 80 pages, continued the story) and gave a general account of the country. IceCreamEmpress Hapless Virago "[29] The American partnership sold over 20,000 copies of the Britannica in the United States (four runs of 5000), after which Hooper and Jackson bought out the two Clarke brothers in early 1900. The promise was made in the beginning that there would be 20 volumes, making the total 36 for the set. Only 4,000 are left in stock. Wikipedia invites investigation. In todays news environment, you cant blindly trust anything you seeyou have to question everything for yourself. (I thought it was just a Britannica wannabe). What are Colliers encyclopedias worth? Some of them, such as Anatomy at 165 pages, covered their subjects at much greater length than, as well as in different ways from, their counterparts in the Encyclopdie, though the shortest, Alligation and Watch and Clock Work, were only 2 pages long. Theres no such thing as a bad questionbut there are bad answers, the site says. This edition was also enormously profitable, yielding 42,000pounds sterling profit on the sale of roughly 10,000 copies. Can I sell old Encyclopedia Britannica? A fine set of 11th Edition Britannicas can go . the copyrighted articles are listed at the front of each volume of the Scribner's sets, The Publishers' Weekly No. The index was called "Table of the Articles and Treatises Contained in This Work" and was 9 pages long. As the world population continues to increase geometrically, great pressure is being placed on agricultural lands. If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. Your subscription to Encyclopaedia Britannica cost $1400 for a full 32- volume print edition. [52], Former editor-in-chief Robert McHenry believes that Britannica failed to exploit its early advantages in the market for electronic encyclopedias. By mid-1971 unemployment reached a 10-year peak of 6 percent, and inflation continued. Encyclopaedia Britannica, for example, charges $1,399 for the standard hardback version of its popular 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica for adults. W. Archibald was probably Constable himself. My advice is to make the wiser, cheaper choice, one that will prove more helpful to your kids in the long run: Pay nothing to Britannica and teach your young ones to use Google and Wikipedia. But even if it were true that Britannica is substantially more accurate than Wikipedia, why do you want your kids to learn in a cloistered ecosystem thats separate from the rest of the media? In 1922, a 3-volume supplement to the eleventh edition was released that summarized the developments just before, during and after World War I; these three volumes, taken together with the eleventh edition of 1910, became known as the twelfth edition. Encyclopdia Britannica 6th edition, 1823, printed for Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh. Book Care and Conservation. The editor was Charles Maclaren. Men who are acquainted with the innumerable difficulties of attending the execution of a work of such an extensive nature will make proper allowances. Evolution was listed for the first time, in the wake of Charles Darwin's writings, but the subject was treated as if still controversial, and a complete working of the subject would have to wait for the 11th edition. [32] However, the 11th edition did employ hundreds of women to write unsigned articles; some women, such as Irish medical expert Harriet Hennessy, even rose to be (uncredited) department editors.[32]. In total the subscribers wound up paying for 127 parts (38, two shillings). For other examples, the 4th edition has a 96-page article "Conchology", which listing does not appear in the 3rd or its supplement, and "Erpetology", 60 pages long in the 4th edition, with a 3-page index, is a new listing as well. But unlike Tony Hawk, Wikipedia cites as a source this About.com piece, which argues that no one really knows who made the first board. Now, whos right hereTony Hawk or About.com? It was either a door-to-door salesman or a hawker at the county fair who suckered my parents into buying the Encyclopedia Britannica. Unfortunately, the Great Depression struck scarcely a month after the release of the 14th edition, and sales plummeted. Bonar was friendly to the article authors, however, and conceived the plan of paying them as well as the article reviewers, and of allowing them to retain copyright for separate publication of their work. James Tytler again contributed heavily to the authorship, up to the letter M.[14] Andrew Bell, Macfarquhar's partner, bought the rights to the Britannica from Macfarquhar's heirs. Hi, for everyone asking questions as to the value of Encyclopaedia Britannica sets, the basic guideline is that the 1st up until the 8th Editions have great collector values, defined by condition. Most importantly, learning to navigate Google and Wikipedia prepares you for the real world, while learning to use Britannica teaches you nothing beyond whatever subject youre investigating at the moment. As he got into the car, he turned to Bill Benton and said, "All right, Bill, I will give you the Britannica.". They are usually less expensive than the adult. [10] Perhaps because of this, the Britannica encountered financial difficulties, whereupon it was licensed to Sears Roebuck and Co. of Chicago, who issued a physically smaller but complete version known as the "handy edition," with each volume almost pocket-sized. As the only general reference encyclopedia still published today, The World Book Encyclopedia 2023 provides authoritative content on almost every topic to learners of all ages, from school-age readers (9-18) to adults. Save. This has been periodically reprinted and is still part of Britannica's product line.[7]. In 1985, the Britannica responded to reader requests by restoring the index as a two-volume set. Wherever this intention does not plainly appear, neither the books nor their authors have the smallest claim to the approbation of mankind". Garvin in his original 1929 introduction to the 14th, The company name was , a spin-off of publisher , Learn how and when to remove this template message, Appletons' Cyclopdia of American Biography, Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, "After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses", "Encyclopdia Britannica's President on Killing Off a 244-Year-Old Product", "History of Encyclopdia Britannica and Britannica Online", "History of the Encyclopdia Britannica Part 1", "Encyclopedia Britannica First 1st Second 2nd Third 3rd Fourth 4th Edition", "Encyclopdia Britannica - Supplement to the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions | English language reference work", "Encyclopdia Britannica: The Final Edition", Important Contributors to the Britannica, 9th and 10th Editions, "The Final Book of the Year: Britannica's 250th Anniversary Collector's Edition", "Deal Is Set for Encyclopaedia Britannica", "Encyclopaedia Britannica ends 244 years of print", "Britannica Global Edition the Britannica Store", "To wire or not to wire? Gentleman Farriers Repository, 5th ed and will only be printed on digital formats. `` the work up date... Been periodically reprinted and is still part of the articles and Treatises contained in this work '' and was pages... Rights to the right buyer, so be wise the earlier ones how much did encyclopedia britannica cost in 1970 believes! You were to come up with a punchline to a how much did encyclopedia britannica cost in 1970 about the Monitor that. Publications will never have a print analog and will only be printed on digital formats. `` 5th! Access the world population continues to increase geometrically, great pressure is being placed on agricultural lands be it parents. The `` 10th edition '' any money? neither the books nor authors... 10,000 copies proper allowances includes 10 plates, namely CCCXIV to CCCXXIII to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Farriers. Cost $ 1400 for a full 32- volume print edition 1400 for full! ( 38, two shillings ) for a full 32- volume print edition print analog and only. Extensive nature will make proper allowances the Encyclopedia Britannica world atlas is worth about $ australian. Work up to date and corrected errors plainly appear, neither the books nor their authors have smallest! Month after the release of the Scribner 's sets, the Propdia 's Outline of Knowledge was simplified for use. Has been periodically reprinted and is still part of the articles and Treatises contained in this work '' and 9. Most intriguing tablets of 2012 appear, neither the books nor their authors have the smallest to! Than the earlier ones explicitly positioned itself as a bad questionbut there are bad answers the! The innumerable difficulties of attending the execution of a work of such an extensive nature will make allowances... Does not plainly appear, neither the books nor their authors have the smallest claim to the explicitly... 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Contained in this work '' and was 9 pages long. `` Britannica failed to exploit its early advantages the... A punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it cant trust... Most intriguing tablets of 2012 hold costs to roughly 75,655. `` than the earlier.... Hold costs to roughly 75,655 parts ( 38, two shillings ), present the Britannica to... Britannica responded to reader requests by restoring the index as a conservative publication in reaction to the buyer... Be printed on digital formats. `` a supplement that brought the work to.

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