We had a set, that my parents purchased by installment sometime in the early 70s. I used it a lot during my school years to research subjects, and sometimes would read from it just for fun.After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
By JULIE BOSMAN
Ángel Franco/The New York Times
A set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the shelves of the New York Public Library.After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print.
Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered reference books that were once sold door-to-door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed as proud fixtures in American homes will be discontinued, company executives said.
In an acknowledgment of the realities of the digital age — and of competition from the Web site Wikipedia — Encyclopaedia Britannica will focus primarily on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools. The last print version is the 32-volume 2010 edition, which weighs 129 pounds and includes new entries on global warming and the Human Genome Project.
“It’s a rite of passage in this new era,” Jorge Cauz, the president of Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., a company based in Chicago, said in an interview. “Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continuously updated, it’s much more expansive and it has multimedia.”
In the 1950s, having the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the bookshelf was akin to a station wagon in the garage or a black-and-white Zenith in the den, a possession coveted for its usefulness and as a goalpost for an aspirational middle class. Buying a set was often a financial stretch, and many families had to pay for it in monthly installments.
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They wanted me to take it off their hands when I went into college, but it was massive and I had no place to store it - so it was donated to a local library. It was a beautiful set of books, to be sure. Sad to think they've gone the way of the dinosaurs.
