The Last of the Encyclopedia Britannica

[imcarthur]

When my father bought a set in the late 60s it helped me write a mess of school projects. I literally read it cover to cover.

From CNN

"Just three weeks after the publisher of the iconic encyclopedia announced it would be ceasing print production after 244 years, more than 3,000 printed copies of the final edition, the 2010 version, have sold at the standard price of $1,395 Cauz said.

New versions of the coveted 32-volume set, which up until the last decade was peddled by door-to-door salesmen, will now be available exclusively on the Internet."

Ian

[johnco]

I've still got a complete set with bookcase from 1955. I bet I flipped thru every page of every book 2-3 times before I even started school and several times after I learned to read

[rouxroux]

Same here....even had the little red "Encyclopedia Junior" set as well. Really gavve me the edge back in the 60's.

[onlycafe]

i made my first batch of black powder when i was ten, thanks to the britannica.

[cantdrv55]

My son just dropped off our EB set at the Goodwill tonight.

[johnsjmc]

I had a 1911 set ,that were my grandfather,s . They were beautifully bound in suede and the pages were thin as tissue paper. There were whole chapters on diregible (sp.? balloon) design but little or nothing on airplanes. I poured over them as a child.
I kept them for years but sadly threw them away a couple years ago. I had loaned a couple to my brothers ex girlfriend for a high school project and they were never returned. If they had any collector value I am sure a part set wasn,t worth much.

[Hugh R]

My wife couldn't understand why I picked up this Webster's Third International Unabridged Dictionary for $5 at a local garage sale; stand included.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

My wife couldn't understand why I picked up this Webster's Third International Unabridged Dictionary for $5 at a local garage sale; stand included.

Very cool. I've always wanted one of those giant unabridged versions.

I had an Encyclopedia Britannica when I was a kid. It got me through a bunch of school papers. I had several of the year books too. My wife would kill me, but I'd love to have an old set again.

[dafischer]

I was a renegade...no Brittanica for me. My parents bought me a set of Collier's Encycloprdia, 1963 vintage. As others have said, they were the basis for many school reports, and I read every one cover to cover. In many ways. the "Electronic Age" kinda sucks.

[vash]

my mom still has the red kid set, AND the adult version. i remember reading those things. the regular version has a pretty good section on sex. i read it when i was about 10. funny.

i also read the section about birds of prey over and over.

i have that huge dictionary at home. cant see ever using it again with my dictionary app on my phone

[look 171]

I have a full set from the 70s. I wonder if its worth any money. I was thinking about selling it to someone for 50bucks. I bet it will be worth some money in the next twenty years. I don't know if I want to hang on to it for that long.

[A930Rocket]

We got ours in the early to mid sixties, plus yearly updates. Many a book report was done with them. The parents still have them at home.

[Bill Douglas]

I've got the Oxford encyclopedia set I used as a young kid stored in the attic. I guess these days if a kid is old enough to do school assignments, they are old enough to find what they want on google. As a kid I used to love browsing through the volumes.

[on2wheels52]

I won a set in 1961 (it was second prize). I certainly didn't read every page but found a number of topics that interested me.
We donated them a few years ago.
Jim

[TheMentat]

I remember using encyclopedias... It's simply amazing how outdated stuff like that has become. Wikipedia has made information infinitely more accessible.

[imcarthur]

Originally Posted by TheMentat

Wikipedia has made information infinitely more accessible.

And more disposable. Who needs to remember anything when you can just look it up anywhere/anytime on a device? There's good & bad there.

Ian

[flatbutt]

I have a relatively new 32 volume Micro/Macro set from the early 80's. My kids used it alot. Now it sits in my library.

[s_morrison57]

Recycled mine 2 years ago, early 60's version, didn't need them anymore cause the wife knows everything.
Finn

[TheMentat]

Quote de TheMentat

Wikipedia has made information infinitely more accessible.

And more disposable. Who needs to remember anything when you can just look it up anywhere/anytime on a device? There's good & bad there.



Ian

Pfft! Sounds like a sales pitch from an encyclopedia salesman.

[GH85Carrera]

In the mid 1980s a Encyclopedia Britannica salesman came to my door. As much as I wanted them the steep price was just out of reach for me. I asked him if they had a version on CD and he went into a sales pitch about how the Encyclopedia Britannica would never be on electronic media. Only the printed version was good enough. He was badly mistaken.