The ''Popular Encyclopedia or Conversations Lexicon'' was a British encyclopedia that was published from 1837 to 1893 by

Blackie and Son Blackie & Son was a publishing house in Glasgow, Scotland, and London, England, from 1809 to 1991.Iain Stevenson, ''Book Makers: British Publishing in the Twentieth Century''. London: The British Library, 2010, p. 77. History The firm was foun ...

, of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. It was originally a reprint of

Francis Lieber Francis Lieber (18 March 1798 – 2 October 1872) was a German-American jurist and political philosopher. He is best known for the Lieber Code, the first codification of the customary law and the laws of war for battlefield conduct, which serve ...

's ''

Encyclopedia Americana ''Encyclopedia Americana'' is a general encyclopedia written in American English. It was the first general encyclopedia of any magnitude to be published in North America. With '' Collier's Encyclopedia'' and ''Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclo ...

'', itself based on the

Brockhaus Enzyklopädie The ( German for ''Brockhaus Encyclopedia'') is a German-language encyclopedia which until 2009 was published by the F. A. Brockhaus printing house. The first edition originated in the '' Conversations-Lexikon'' published by Renatus Gotthelf ...

. A new edition was published in 1841, this time omitting the reference to the ''Americana'' in the subtitle. Further seven volume editions were published in 1862 and 1877 under the editorship of Alexander Whitelaw. In 1882 the set was taken over by

Charles Annandale Charles Annandale (1843–1915) was a Scottish editor, primarily of reference books. Life He was born at Fordoun on 26 August 1843, the son of James Annandale. He graduated M.A. from the University of Aberdeen in 1867, and later received an hono ...

whose edition of 1890-93 was expanded to 14 volumes. Blackie and Son was bought out by Gresham Publishing Company in 1901 and republished as the ''New Popular Encyclopedia'', and in 1906 as the ''Modern Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge''. In 1889-1890 Blackie and Son also published ''Blackies Modern Cyclopaedia of Universal Information'', also edited by Annandale. The relationship between this work and the above encyclopedias is unclear, but it though that they are closely related.

American editions

Meanwhile, in the United States, Gebbie and Company published a version of Blackies with the title ''New Cabinet Encyclopedia and Treasury of Knowledge'' with the American-related articles revised and edited by

Ainsworth Rand Spofford Ainsworth Rand Spofford (September 12, 1825 – August 11, 1908) was the sixth Librarian of Congress. He was also a journalist and a prolific writer. He served as librarian from 1864 to 1897 under the administration of ten presidents. A great adm ...

. It then was republished under different titles and various imprints as the ''New National Encyclopedia and Treasury'' ( Brown, Edgar and Hull, 1899), ''XX Century Cyclopedia'' (Gebbie 1901), ''New Twentieth Century Encyclopedia and Dictionary'' ( E. R. Dumont 1903) which included two volumes of a biographical dictionary "living Americans" and two volumes of an English dictionary, bringing the total number of volumes to 12, ''New and Complete Universal Self Pronouncing Encyclopedia'', in the original 8 volume format, ( International Press, 1905), ''New Cosmopolitan Encyclopedia'' (Thompson, 1906) and ''New Encyclopedia of Reference'' ( Standard Bookbinnding 1912) Walsh p.12, 112

American editions

References

External links