''Encyclopedia Lituanica'' (likely named after ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

'' or '' Encyclopedia Americana'') is a six-volume (about 3600-page)

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

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 ...

about

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

and Lithuania-related topics. It was published between 1970 and 1978 in Boston, Massachusetts by

Lithuanian Americans Lithuanian Americans refers to American citizens and residents who are Lithuanian and were born in Lithuania, or are of Lithuanian descent. New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has the largest percentage of Lithuanian Americans (20.8%) in the United ...

who fled

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

occupation at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. To this day, it remains the only such comprehensive work on Lithuania in the English language. The encyclopedia was compiled and published by the same individuals who had published '' Lietuvių enciklopedija'', a 35-volume general encyclopedia in the

Lithuanian language Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 mill ...

, in 1953-1966. Later, two volumes of additions and supplements were added and the 37th and last volume was published in 1985. The undertaking was made extremely complicated by the fact that most sources and resources were behind the

iron curtain The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its ...

in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. Some of the entries in ''Encyclopedia Lituanica'' come from this earlier work, which had about two-fifths of its content devoted to Lithuania-related topics. Thus a majority of entries were first written in Lithuanian and later translated into English. However, observers note a good quality of translations. The encyclopedia was published by Lithuanian Encyclopedia Press, founded and owned by Juozas Kapočius. He was awarded the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas in 1995.Awarded Persons Database
Orders, Medals and Other Awards, Administration of the Office of the President. Accessed August 30, 2006. It was edited by Simas Sužiedėlis, and at the end of the last volume it lists 197 contributors; only a handful of them are non-Lithuanians.

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External links

Find ''Encyclopedia Lituanica'' in libraries worldwide
Lithuanian-American culture in Massachusetts Lituanica 1970 non-fiction books Encyclopedias of culture and ethnicity 20th-century encyclopedias

See also

References

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