Books: Patriarch Revised

THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA: Fourteenth Edition. A New Survey of Universal Knowledge—The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. ($129.50-$325)

When the directors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Co., Ltd., obtained as their compendium's editor-in-chief able James Louis Garvin, longtime editor of the London Observer and in the late Lord Northcliffe's opinion "the greatest living journalist" (TIME, April 26, 1926), the publishing world knew that something striking might happen to the Patriarch of the Library. Editor Garvin's selection was encouraged by U. S. representatives and the American Advisory Board, with Franklin Henry Hooper of New York as American Editor, was given new freedom.

Now the Patriarch is out again, in 24 revised, amplified, revivified volumes. From "A to Anno" to "Vase to Zygo" a new, humanizing, journalistic touch is felt. To whom does a good journalist turn for the best account of the big prizefight? To the champion, of course. In choosing the author of the article on Boxing the U. S. advisors were doubtless less impressed by James Joseph ("Gene") Tunney's reputation for reading Shakespeare and hob nobbing with George Bernard Shaw, than in Retired Champion Tunney's undoubted knowledge of the fight game and the appropriateness of having a boxer write on Boxing. Whether or not they would have asked William Harrison ("Jack") Dempsey to write the section if Dempsey had knocked out Tunney when last they met, the editors do not say. But from their choices of new authors in other fields, it seems safe to say that the policy throughout was: "The name-of-the-moment, come what may."

Thus it is that august Britannica's list of contributors for the 14th Edition includes, besides Tunney, and besides the greatest scholars on scholarly subjects, such arresting names as Lon Chaney, Edward F. Albee, Alice Foote MacDougall; Henry Ford, President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia, Samuel R. ("Roxy") Rothafel, Lincoln Clark Andrews (U. S. Prohibition Chief, 1925-27), George Jean Nathan, Jesse L. Lasky, George Eastman, etc., etc., etc. (Contributors are discoverable in a list printed with the introduction. Articles are only initialed.)

Some subjects and authors: