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Before Google, there was Goodykoontz
Information packaging, Victorian style
I'm often astonished by the 19th century's earnest approach to things. Its newspapers are text-heavy. Its popular journals— such as Scribner's and McClure's— feature the latest fiction but also a dizzying display of features on everything from trapping big game animals to the flora of New York City's Central Park.
Then there are the compendia of facts. Every so often I'll stumble across one of these in a used books store, and they always humble me.
Good through 4100 A.D.
Consider Goodykoontz's Manual, subtitled, "A Book for the Millions." This was an annual compendium compiled and illustrated by Jasper Goodykoontz. My copy, from 1894, gets things off to an ambitious start with Goodykoontz's Perpetual Calendar, "photo-engraved from pen copy made by the author," which is apparently good through 4100 A.D. If that doesn't satisfy you, the book also contains a Jewish and a Mohammedan calendar.
There are maps of the solar system, mathematical tables, examples of "Cards and Notes for Ceremonies," examples of business letter formats, dictionaries of dates, a section entitled "Who? What? Where? When?" for which Goodykoontz provides pen sketches of famous men and women, and even a "Summary of Parliamentary Procedure," should one find oneself at large in some legislative body.
Considering that the book was entirely lettered and illustrated by hand, it must have been a daunting undertaking. Yet Jasper Goodykoontz produced one of these "books for the millions" every year almost until 1920.
Imagine— a publication arising out of sheer Victorian earnestness that lasted almost into the Jazz Age.
Best jiu-jitsu holds
If Goodykoontz's Manual was a sleek destroyer cutting its way through a sea of ignorance, Collier's New American Encyclopedia of Social and Commercial Information, published in New York in 1908, was a true dreadnought. This 900-plus-page tome is a true "desert island" edition.
A careful perusal of its pages will teach you everything from conversational French and proper bowing technique on your violoncello to the best jiu-jitsu holds. It attempts to tell everything you ever wanted to know about everything and compress it all into a single volume. The sheer amount of content in this volume never ceases to cause me to wonder how its editor. James E. Homans— a mere M.A. at that, not a multi-titled Ph.D.!— managed it all.
What to leave out, what to include? How many pages is a manual on Jiu-Jitsu worth in the grand scheme of things? (The automobile or "self-propelled carriage" is dealt with in a scant six pages.) While the Goodykoontz volume could be characterized as "a business expense"— a useful office tool— the Collier's Encyclopedia could only be viewed as a bookshelf adornment.
But the desire expressed in both books to identify useful knowledge and package it in such a way as to render it usable knowledge is, in its small way, a testament to the human spirit.
Then there are the compendia of facts. Every so often I'll stumble across one of these in a used books store, and they always humble me.
Good through 4100 A.D.
Consider Goodykoontz's Manual, subtitled, "A Book for the Millions." This was an annual compendium compiled and illustrated by Jasper Goodykoontz. My copy, from 1894, gets things off to an ambitious start with Goodykoontz's Perpetual Calendar, "photo-engraved from pen copy made by the author," which is apparently good through 4100 A.D. If that doesn't satisfy you, the book also contains a Jewish and a Mohammedan calendar.
There are maps of the solar system, mathematical tables, examples of "Cards and Notes for Ceremonies," examples of business letter formats, dictionaries of dates, a section entitled "Who? What? Where? When?" for which Goodykoontz provides pen sketches of famous men and women, and even a "Summary of Parliamentary Procedure," should one find oneself at large in some legislative body.
Considering that the book was entirely lettered and illustrated by hand, it must have been a daunting undertaking. Yet Jasper Goodykoontz produced one of these "books for the millions" every year almost until 1920.
Imagine— a publication arising out of sheer Victorian earnestness that lasted almost into the Jazz Age.
Best jiu-jitsu holds
If Goodykoontz's Manual was a sleek destroyer cutting its way through a sea of ignorance, Collier's New American Encyclopedia of Social and Commercial Information, published in New York in 1908, was a true dreadnought. This 900-plus-page tome is a true "desert island" edition.
A careful perusal of its pages will teach you everything from conversational French and proper bowing technique on your violoncello to the best jiu-jitsu holds. It attempts to tell everything you ever wanted to know about everything and compress it all into a single volume. The sheer amount of content in this volume never ceases to cause me to wonder how its editor. James E. Homans— a mere M.A. at that, not a multi-titled Ph.D.!— managed it all.
What to leave out, what to include? How many pages is a manual on Jiu-Jitsu worth in the grand scheme of things? (The automobile or "self-propelled carriage" is dealt with in a scant six pages.) While the Goodykoontz volume could be characterized as "a business expense"— a useful office tool— the Collier's Encyclopedia could only be viewed as a bookshelf adornment.
But the desire expressed in both books to identify useful knowledge and package it in such a way as to render it usable knowledge is, in its small way, a testament to the human spirit.
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