- Australian Encyclopaedia
The Australian Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia focused on
Australia . Besides biographies of notable Australians the coverage includes thegeology ,flora ,fauna as well as the history of the continent. It was first published byAngus and Robertson in two volumes 1925 and 1926 respectively. The current edition is the fifth from 1988.History
The Encyclopedia was initiated in 1912 as a historical and biographical record under the directorship of Charles H. Bertie, municipal librarian of
Sydney , and a lot of material had been collected when the outbreak ofWorld War I in 1914 temporarily halted its progress.In 1917 work resumed and it was decided that the book should also include scientific subjects. Herbert J. Carter, the future President of the
Linnean Society of New South Wales (1925-1926) recruited other Australian scientists to work on the encyclopedia. Their contributions were, in many instances, the first summaries of scientific knowledge published in a general reference work in Australia. In 1920 CaptainArthur Jose was released from the Australian Navy and became the general editor. He found that due to the time elapsed since the project started and due to the availability of new sources that it had become necessary to re-write much of the historical and biographical information.New Editions
The expanded second edition was published in 1958 in 10 smaller volumes with several reprintings. The
Groliner Society of Australia published the 6 volume third edition in 1977, followed by the 12 volume fourth edition in 1983.The 9 volumes of the fifth edition were published on behalf of theAustralian Geographic Society 1988.References
*"Australian Encyclopaedia" Volume I (A-Lys), p v-vi, Angus and Robertson Limited, 1925.
*"Australian Encyclopaedia" Volume II (Mab-Z), Angus and Robertson Limited, 1926.External links
For a critical review of the first edition:
* cite journal
last = Hagen
first = Nadine
title = A Mind-Map of a Nation: The Australian Encyclopaedia
journal = Allgemeinwissen und Gesellschaft
volume =
issue =
pages = 247-256
publisher = www.enzyklopaedie.ch
location =
date = 2007
url = http://www.enzyklopaedie.ch/kongress/aufsaetze/hagen.pdf
doi =
id =
accessdate = 24.8.2008
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