All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopaedia

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank everyone who has helped me with this book. This number includes the pair I’ve been grateful to for many years, and whose wisdom and enthusiasm is never taken for granted: my agent Rosemary Scoular and my editor Jenny Lord.

The team at Weidenfeld and the wider Orion empire has provided untold expertise. Thank you to Steve Marking and Arneaux for the wonderfully arresting jacket design, to Sarah Fortune, Kate Moreton, Lucy Cameron and Ellen Turner, and to my copy editor Seán Costello, who detected anomalies, repetitions, questionable assumptions and repetitions.

The staff of the London Library have rooted out many rare and important editions. Much of this book was researched during lockdown, and the library’s postal system was another wonderful service from this exceptional institution.

My thanks also to Johnny Davis, Leo Robson and Catherine Kanter for providing inspiration and the occasional volume. I spoke to many people at Wikipedia who do not receive a mention in the text, and I appreciate the time they spent with me. I am indebted to Andrew Bud for conducting his usual meticulous read. Professor Daniel Pick provided similarly cogent and far-sighted comments.

There are several scholars who have devoted many years to the study of encyclopaedias and their contexts, and I list some of their major publications below. The works of Frank and Serena Kafker, Jason König, Greg Woolf, Peter Burke, Jeff Loveland and Ann Blair were particularly useful, combining rigorous detail with engaging readability.

This book is dedicated to my wife Justine, who sighed hardly at all when another set of pungent old flaky books arrived in the post, and has been my index and spine throughout.