Funk & Wagnalls

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Funk & Wagnalls is a publisher based in New York City known for its reference works, including an encyclopedia, content from which became a part of Microsoft's Encarta digital encyclopedia.

[edit] History

Isaac Kaufmann Funk founded the business in 1876 as I.K. Funk & Company. The firm's first publication was the Metropolitan Pulpit. In 1877, Adam Willis Wagnalls, one of Funk's classmates at Wittenberg College, now Wittenberg University, joined the firm as a partner. The two changed the name of the firm to Funk & Wagnalls Company in 1890.

Prior to 1890, F. & W. published only religious-oriented works. The publication of The Literary Digest in 1890 marked a change for the firm to a publisher of general reference dictionaries and encyclopedias. The firm followed in 1894 with its most memorable publication, The Standard Dictionary of the English Language ^{(OCLC 19715240)}. 1912 saw the publication of the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia ^{(OCLC 1802064)}.

In 1953, the firm began to sell its reference publications through a supermarket continuity marketing campaign, encouraging consumers to include the latest volume of the encyclopedia on their shopping lists.

In 1965, the company, known as Funk & Wagnalls, Inc., was bought by Reader's Digest Association. In 1971, it was sold again to the firm Dun & Bradstreet. In subsequent years, the publication rights to the company's reference works (aside from the encyclopedia) were acquired by other firms. The publication rights to the encyclopedia were spun off by Dun & Bradstreet in 1983, and were bought up once more in 1990 by K-III Holdings Inc.

In 1984, Dun & Bradstreet sold Funk & Wagnalls to a group of Funk & Wagnalls executives.

In 1988, the company was purchased by Field Publications, a division of Marshall Field V's Field Corporation. Field was bought by K-III in 1990.

In 1998, as part of the Information division of Primedia Inc. (the renamed K-III Holdings), Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia became the web site "funkandwagnalls.com". This short-lived venture was shut down in 2001. The encyclopedia exists today only as Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, an electronic reference provided to educational institutions by the World Almanac Education Group.

Ripplewood Holdings bought Primedia's education holdings in 1999, which became part of The Reader's Digest Association in 2007.

Some content from the encyclopedia became a part of Microsoft's Encarta digital encyclopedia.

[edit] Popular culture

In the late 1960s through the early 1970s, Funk and Wagnalls became part of one of the iconic jokes on the ground-breaking show Laugh-In, where a frequently-made reference was "Go look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls", a play on the perceived profanity in the word "funk".

Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent sketches on The Tonight Show frequently made reference to the 'answers' being hidden from Carnac as "hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar under Funk & Wagnalls' porch since noon today."

In the South Park episode "Cancelled", Cartman asks: "What the Funk and Wagnalls are you talking about?"

In the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century 1979 episode "Planet of the Slave Girls", Buck, argues with fellow pilot Major Duke Danton in-flight, "If you call that interference, there's something wrong with your Funk & Wagnalls." Danton, unaware of the centuries-old origin of the statement, replies, "I don't know what you mean by that, but how'd you like to repeat that in the flight hangar?"

In The West Wing, White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg says "Thank you, Funk & Wagnall's." in a Season 1 episode in reference to a comment by Toby Ziegler that "Direction and track are two different words."

[edit] Publications

• unknown - The Pulpit Commentary
• 1890 – The Literary Digest
• 18?? - The Preacher's Homiletic Commentary on the Old Testament
• 1894 – The Standard Dictionary of the English Language
• 18?? - The Preacher's Homiletic Commentary on the New Testament
• 1909 - Standard Bible Dictionary
• 1912 – Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia
• 1927 – The World's One Hundred Best Short Stories (Ten Volumes)
• 1936 – A New Standard Bible Dictionary
• 19?? – Funk & Wagnalls standard handbook of synonyms, antonyms, and prepositions
• 19?? – Funk & Wagnalls standard dictionary of folklore, mythology and legend
• 19?? – Standard Dictionary of the English Language (International Edition)
• 19?? – Poetry handbook; a dictionary of terms
• 1973 – Funk & Wagnalls Guide to modern world literature
• 19?? - Funk & Wagnalls Wildlife Encyclopedia
• 19?? - The New Funk & Wagnalls Illustrated Wildlife Encyclopedia
• 1990 – Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia
• 19?? – Funk & Wagnalls new world encyclopedia (electronic database)
• 19?? – Funk & Wagnalls world atlas^[1]

[edit] References