Editing Encyclopedia Americana (section)

== History and predecessors ==
[[File:1921EncycAmericanAd.jpg|right|thumb|200px|This 1921 advertisement for the ''Encyclopedia Americana'' suggests that other encyclopedias are as out-of-date as the locomotives of 90 years earlier.]]
There have been three separate works using the title ''Encyclopedia Americana''.

The first work began publication in 1829 by [[Francis Lieber]], an influential 19th century German-American scholar.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|31}} The 13 volumes of the first edition were completed in 1833, and other editions and printings followed in 1835, 1836, 1847–1848, 1849 and 1858. According to one contemporary source, the original price in 1832, at which time several volumes had been issued, was to be $2.50 per volume for 12 volumes, or $30 in total.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2006-02-13 |title=how much it cost inside Wikipedia article Talk:Encyclopedia Americana |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Encyclopedia_Americana |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526065339/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Encyclopedia_Americana |archive-date=2015-05-26 |access-date=2023-12-10 |website=Wikipedia}}</ref>{{Circular reference|date=May 2024}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Encyclopædia Americana (Lieber) |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Americana_(Lieber) |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231008103924/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Americana_(Lieber) |archive-date=2023-10-08 |access-date=2023-12-10 |website=Wikipedia}}</ref>{{Circular reference|date=May 2024}} At first, Lieber planned only an English-language translation of the 7th edition of the popular German encyclopedia Konversations-Lexikon, familiarly known as Brockhaus after its publisher Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus. However, as work on the new encyclopedia progressed, Lieber sought and added original articles by leading U.S. writers and intellectuals of the day. United States Supreme Court Justice [[Joseph Story]], for instance, contributed more than 120 pages of legal material to the 1st edition. Hence, when the Americana began appearing some 165 years ago, it represented a hybrid of 2 cultures, German and American.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|31}}

A second ''Encyclopedia Americana'' was published by [[Stoddart|J.M. Stoddart]] between 1883 and 1889, as a supplement to American reprintings of the 9th edition of the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. It was four [[quarto]] volumes meant to "extend and complete the articles in ''Britannica''".<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Literary Gossip|magazine=The Week : a Canadian journal of politics, literature, science and arts|date=21 February 1884|volume=1|issue=12|page=190|url=https://archive.org/stream/weekcanadianjour01toro#page/n96/mode/1up|access-date=26 April 2013}}</ref> Stoddart's work, however, is not connected to the earlier work by Lieber.<ref>{{cite book | last=Walsh | first=S. Padraig | title=Anglo-American General Encyclopedias: A Historical Bibliography, 1703–1967| pages=42 | location=New York | publisher=Bowker | year=1968 | oclc=221812838}}</ref>

In 1902, a new, 16-volume ''Encyclopedia Americana'' was published under the editorial supervision of ''[[Scientific American]]'' magazine. The magazine's editor, [[Frederick Converse Beach]], was editor-in-chief, assisted by hundreds of eminent scholars and authorities as consulting editors and article authors. Beach also expanded the encyclopedia's coverage, especially in the area of the physical and life sciences.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|31}} [[George Edwin Rines]] was appointed managing editor in 1903.<ref name="americana">{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Rines, George Edwin}}</ref> Between 1903 and 1906 the publisher was [[Richard S. Peale|R.S. Peale & Co.]] From 1906 through 1936, ''Encyclopedia Americana'' was published by the Americana Corporation, with the editorial support of ''Scientific American''. The relationship with ''Scientific American'' was terminated in 1911.<ref>{{cite book | last=Collison | first=Robert | title=Encyclopedias: Their History throughout the Ages | url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediasth0000coll | url-access=registration | location=New York | publisher=Hafner | year=1964 }}</ref> From 1907 to 1912, the encyclopedia was published as ''The Americana''.

In 1918–20, the Americana Corporation published a new, International, 30-volume edition, with George Edwin Rines continuing as editor-in-chief.<ref name="americana"/><ref name=":1" />{{rp|31}} It was the last entirely new edition of the encyclopedia.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|31}} A yearbook, which appeared under a variety of titles, was also published each year beginning in 1923 and continuing until 2008.<ref name=":0" />

In 1936, the Americana Corporation was purchased by The Grolier Society, later renamed [[Grolier Incorporated]]. The Americana Corporation's president, J. Cooper Graham, became a vice president of Grolier.<ref>{{Cite news |date=20 March 1973 |title=J. Cooper Graham, 72, an Officer of Grolier, Inc. |pages=42 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/03/20/archives/j-cooper-graham-jr-72-an-officer-of-grolier-inc.html |access-date=10 March 2023 |archive-date=11 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230311202717/https://www.nytimes.com/1973/03/20/archives/j-cooper-graham-jr-72-an-officer-of-grolier-inc.html |url-status=live }}</ref> By the late1960s, Grolier's annual sales of ''Encyclopedia'' ''Americana'' and its sister publications under [[Grolier]]—''[[The Book of Knowledge]]'', the ''[[American Peoples Encyclopedia]]'', the ''Book of Popular Science'', and ''Lands and Peoples'' were over $181 million,<ref>{{cite news|last=Goodman Jr. |first=George |date=29 October 1979 |title=Fred P. Murphy, 90, Ex-Chief of Grolier |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/29/archives/fred-p-murphy-90-exchief-of-grolier-an-aggressive-executive-he-led.html |newspaper=The New York Times |page=D11 |access-date=10 December 2023}}</ref> and the company held a 30 percent market share as the leading publisher of encyclopedias in the United States.<ref>Egelhof, Joseph (7 December 1970). "Sales Force Finds Rising Buying Spirit". ''Chicago Tribune''. p. 81. Retrieved 28 March 2022.</ref> Grolier's corporate headquarters were in a large building (variously named the Americana Building and the Grolier Building) in Midtown [[Manhattan]], at 575 [[Lexington Avenue]]. Sales during this period were accomplished primarily through [[mail-order]] and [[door-to-door]] operations. [[Telemarketing]] and third-party distribution of ''Encyclopedia Americana'' through Grolier's Lexicon Publications subsidiary added to sales volumes in the 1970s. By the late 1970s, Grolier had moved its operations to [[Danbury, Connecticut]].