Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography
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Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography is a six-volume collection of biographies of famous Americans, published between 1887 and 1889, edited by James Grant Wilson (1832-1914) and John Fiske (1842-1901); published by D. Appleton and Company, New York. A seventh volume, containing an appendix and supplementary lists, and thematic indexes to the whole work, was issued in 1901.
The Cyclopædia included the names of over 20,000 native and adopted citizens of the United States, including living persons. Also included were the names of several thousand citizens of all the other countries of North and South America. The aim was to embrace all noteworthy persons of the New World. The work also contained the names of nearly 1,000 people of foreign birth who were closely identified with American history. The Cyclopædia was illustrated with about sixty full-page portraits supplemented by some 1,500 smaller vignette portraits accompanied by facsimile autographs, and also several hundred views of birthplaces, residences, monuments, and tombs famous in history.[1]
Although a major reference for Americana, the Cyclopædia is also notorious for including some 200 biographies of fictitious persons.[2] The first to discover these fictions was John Hendley Barnhart, in 1919,[3] who identified and reprinted, with commentary, fourteen biographical sketches of supposed European botanists who had come to the New World to study in Latin America. By 1939, forty-seven fictitious biographies had been discovered, though only the letters H and V had been systematically investigated.[4] The status of fictitions in Appletons' Cyclopædia was assessed by Margaret Castle Schindler, of Goucher College, in 1937.[5] According to Ms Schindler
The writer (or writers) of these articles must have had some scientific training, for most of the creations were scientists, and sufficient linguistic knowledge to have invented or adapted titles in six languages. He was certainly familiar with the history and geography of South America. Most of the places visited by his characters are real places, and most of the historical events in which they participated are genuine. However, he sometimes made mistakes by which his fraudulent work can be detected.[6]
The writers for Appletons' Cyclopædia were paid by the word, and insufficient editorial control was exerted.[citation needed] The Cyclopædia was republished, uncorrected, by the Gale Research Company in 1968 and remains on many American public library shelves, in spite of Dr. George Sarton's warning in 1939: "Beware of the Appleton's Cyclopaedia!"[citation needed]
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"Preface". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900. - ^ Museum of Hoaxes
- ^ Barnhart, "Some fictitious botanists", Journal of the New York Botanical Garden 20 (1919:171-81). The event was amusing and momentous enough to be mentioned in the obituary written at Dr. Barnhart's death, Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 7.19 (November 1950:35-61) p.52.
- ^ Editorial note by "G.S." (i.e. George Sarton) following Clifford Dobell, "Dr O. Uplavici (1887-1938)", Isis 30.2 (May 1939:268-272). Dr. Uplavici was another fictitious person similar to the Cycolopædia's fictitious entries. Dobell's article revealed the spectral "Dr. O. Uplavici" to have his origin in non-Czech-literate writers' mistaking an article on amoebic dysentery by Dr. Jaroslav Hlva, which was titled "O úplavici" ("On dysentery").
- ^ Schindler, "Fictitious biography", American Historical Review 42 (1937:680-90), cited in note by "G.S." to Dobell (1939), p. 272.
- ^ Quoted from Schindler (1937) by "G.S." in the note to Dobell (1939).
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