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Article: THE READER REPLIES.
- Article from:
- American Scholar
- Article date:
- June 22, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Phi Beta Kappa Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE ROW TO ZANZIBAR
Waves of nostalgia passed over me as I read Thomas Mallon's article on the Illustrated Home Library Encyclopedia ("At Large and At Small," Spring), as I was an avid boyhood reader of its clone, the Illustrated World Encyclopedia. Mr. Mallon's comments are right on target. The writing was styleless, the articles skimpy, the approach condescending. Of course, none of this mattered to my seven-year-old self; and to this day I still recall several nuggets of knowledge the IWE provided me, such as the castle where Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded (Fotheringhay), the year Liszt died (1886--"a few months before his 75th birthday"), and the ...