Amos Urban Shirk ( 1890 – October 20, 1956) was an American businessman, author and

reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

s. As a businessman he worked in the food industry. He wrote ''Marketing Through Food Brokers'', published in 1939 by

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...

. He invented a synthetic

chicle Chicle () is a natural gum traditionally used in making chewing gum and other products. It is collected from several species of Mesoamerican trees in the genus ''Manilkara'', including '' M. zapota'', '' M. chicle'', '' M. staminodella'', and '' ...

and introduced

vitamin A vitamin is an organic molecule (or a set of molecules closely related chemically, i.e. vitamers) that is an Nutrient#Essential nutrients, essential micronutrient that an organism needs in small quantities for the proper functioning of its ...

capsules to grocery stores. He was also renowned as a prodigious reader. Shirk read the entire 23-volume 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' from cover to cover in four and a half years, reading on average three hours per evening, and taking two to six months per volume. As of 1934, he had begun reading the 14th edition, saying he found it a "big improvement" over the 11th, and saying that "most of the material had been completely rewritten". Shirk did not limit himself to ''Britannica''. He also read

Henry Smith Williams Henry Smith Williams (1863-1943) was a medical doctor, lawyer, and author of a number of books on medicine, history, and science. Work In the introductory ''the Author'' of his book '' Drug Addicts Are Human Beings'' published in 1938, it is stat ...

's 24-volume '' Historians' History of the World'', which took him two years, as well as an 18-volume set of works by

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...

, a 32-volume set of

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

, and a 20-volume set of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

. Shirk had other hobbies including

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

and

record collecting Record collecting is the hobby of collecting sound recordings, usually of music, but sometimes poetry, reading, historical speeches, and ambient noises. Although the typical focus is on vinyl records, all formats of recorded music can be collect ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shirk, Amos Urban Encyclopædia Britannica 1890s births 1956 deaths American book and manuscript collectors American encyclopedists American food industry businesspeople

See also

References

External links