There are some surprising misses - American readers in 2012 will wonder why Richard von Mises makes the cut while his older brother Ludwig van Mises doesn't - but overall the calls are much closer. While there's an obvious British slant here, the volume is good not only on international rulers and thinkers but sportsmen and artists as well. Still, entirely subjective random testing suggests a surprisingly good and cross-cultural reach. It's hard to judge - and also depends on what folk folks are interested in. The 1663-page volume offers biographies of over 18,000 people - but is that an adequate (or excessive number) ?
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These aren't all the most significant personalities - and occasionally the entries are shorter than, for example, the Greene one (sculptor Barbara Hepworth, for example on both counts) - but the big guns do get their space: Jesus merits three-quarters of a page, Hitler a full one, and Shakespeare two (although much of one is taken up by a generously-spaced list of his plays). Where necessary, more room is taken: Graham Greene's entry extends over fifty lines, while a considerable number of personalities merit larger separate entries that are printed in boxes and cover the entire width of the page (rather than the two-column presentation of the rest).
The person's full name, year of birth and death, and one-sentence career-summary (" US physicist and Nobel Prize winner") precede the entry proper, which generally begins with place of birth, and then provides a short education- or career-summary, and most notable achievements and/or publications frequently, a single book - a biography or critical study - is cited at the end as reference work about the person in question.ĭifficult though it is to condense a life (and, often, list of works) into such limited space, the entries for the most part do quite a good job of providing a reasonably good snapshot - with a touch of commentary - of the people in question for the very large most part these are quite thoughtful potted biographies. To nevertheless be of continued value, a printed reference work must be both reliable and sufficiently extensive, and the Chambers Biographical Dictionary fares quite well on both counts.Įntries are arranged in two columns on each page, with about ten or a dozen entries per page, the vast majority of entries covered in perhaps a dozen lines. Now having to compete with the likes of Wikipedia and Google-search, it's a tall order: obviously the near-infinite space of the Internet allows for more detail (if not necessarily ready or reliable authority) as well as information about a far greater number of people. (-) : quite well done quite useful (even in the Internet-age)Ĭhambers Biographical Dictionary is meant to be a go-to reference work of biography, offering concise information about a wide variety of public figures, both historical and contemporary. Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.Ĭhambers Biographical Dictionary - Canada
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