General Details

Title: Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia of Modern Knowledge
Volumes: 1
Language: English
Publisher: Funk & Wagnalls
Year: 1959
Pages: 3956

This is the largest single-volume book I own. I had the option of getting the magnificent 6-volume Century Dictionary in a one-volume edition, which would have been larger and heavier, but passed due in large part to my experiences with this book. It weighs a good 20 pounds. The advertising brochure boasts about the conveniences of having a single-volume reference work - no need to make multiple trips to the shelf to consult multiple volumes! less bookshelf space taken up! - but I personally would rather have a multi-volume work. The print, presented in three-columns, is small and the nature of the binding means that, although the book itself lays flat, the pages always have a steep curve towards the center, which makes reading unpleasant. This book is more of a physical workout than a mental one.

The ONE-VOLUME "Assemble-It-Yourself" EDITION Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia of Modern Knowledge was presented as an even cheaper alternative to the already-cheaper-than-most supermarket encyclopedia sets (where one would purchase one or two volumes alongside that week's groceries). This encyclopedia would involve multiple mail shipments (22 weekly mailings for the book sections plus 2 additional mailings with the binder pieces), ALL of which would have to arrive before the whole thing could be assembled with the handy 4-page guide (the photographic print pages and fold-out map pages, all included in section 22, would have to be distributed throughout the entirety of the encyclopedia during assembly, following the handy table provided). All of this great effort by the consumer is what helps drive the price down, according to the advertising materials: "The amazingly small cost at which this valuable encyclopedia can be acquired is largely made possible because you, (after obtaining the Sections week by week), collate the pages and Sections and bind the encyclopedia yourself, thus eliminating one of the costliest procedures in book manufacturing."

After this massive construction project, you have an encyclopedia that claims to feature 30,000 topics, 1,700 illustrations (including 167 color photographs on 13 pages and 192 pages of monochrome photographs), 5,750,000 words, and 3,956 pages. There is no index. Entries refer to other entries through the use of q.v. The fold-out maps (which it boasts fold out to nearly twice the size of maps in other encyclopedias) are difficult to fold and unfold without tearing due to the binding.

Sample Entries

I attempt to look up "umbrella" and "Saint Louis" in every reference work featured on this site. I could not find an entry on "umbrella" or "parasol." There is no index, so I could not see if it was featured under other articles. "Saint Louis" can be found on pages 3128 and 3129:

SAINT LOUIS, port of entry, the principal city of Missouri, and the chief city of the Mississippi Valley, situated on the w. bank of the Mississippi R., about 20 m. below the mouth of the Missouri R. and about 200 m. above the confluence of the Mississippi with the Ohio R. On the e. bank of the Mississippi, opposite St. Louis, is the city of East St. Louis, Illinois. St. Louis is one of the most important centers of transportation in the U.S., and the second-largest railroad terminal in the nation. It is served by nineteen major railroads and numerous other lines, by several major air lines, by bus and truck lines, and by barges and other craft on the Mississippi R. Several bridges span the river at St. Louis. The city covers an area of 61.37 sq. m. and is divided into sections by a series of shallow valleys. It extends along the river front for about 19 m., spreading westward from the river for about 7 m., and rising from an altitude of about 395 ft. above sea level to about 585 ft. The levee extends for about 4 m. along the central part of the river front. The oldest industrial area occupies this portion of the city, with the newer industrial districts extending along the railroads and other commercial arteries, and occupying outlying regions. Many of the residential districts, due to the city's vast industrial expansion, now lie in adjacent communities forming the St. Louis metropolitan area.

St. Louis is the eighth-largest city in population, and its industrial area ranks ninth in value added by manufacture, in the U.S. Its prominence as a commercial, distributing, manufacturing, and financial center is due to its central position, giving access to abundant raw materials, sources of fuel supply, hydroelectric power, and densely-populated areas, and to its excellent transportation facilities. The city is one of the world's leading markets for wool, lumber, furs, hides, horses and mules, grain, drugs, dry goods, and men's and women's hats. The chief industries are meat packing, brewing oil refining, printing and publishing, shipping, and the manufacture of poultry and livestock, feed, tobacco products, flour, food products, bakery products, beverages, shoes, shoemaking machinery, boot and shoe cut stock, motor vehicles, motor-vehicle bodies and parts, railroad and street cars, iron, steel, lead, stoves, ranges, furnaces, aircraft, machinery, electrical apparatus and equipment, hardware, ordnance materials, brick, terra cotta and other clay products, boxes and other lumber products, paper containers, chemicals, drugs, paints and varnishes, textiles, and clothing. The extensive wholesale and jobbing houses in St. Louis serve fourteen of the midwestern States and the city also has a vast retail trade. St. Louis is the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of the 8th district, and the site of a Federal Land Bank, in addition to several other Federal agencies.

Among the educational and cultural institutions in the city and vicinity are Washington University (q.v.); St. Louis University (q.v.); the City College of Law and Finance; Harris Teachers College, established in 1857; The Principia College (Christian Science), founded in 1898; the St. Louis College of Pharmacy; Stowe Teachers and Junior College (1898); Concordia Theological Seminary (Evangelical Lutheran), founded in 1839; Eden Theological Seminary (German Evangelical Synod of North America), established in 1859; Kenrick Theological Seminary (Roman Catholic), founded in 1894; the St. Louis Institute of Music; the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; the Artists' Guild; the St. Louis Public Library; the Mercantile Library; the Missouri Historical Society; the Civic Grand Opera Association; the municipal opera; and the St. Louis Art Museum.

The most notable structures are the public buildings flanking the Memorial Plaza, which include the Civil Courts Building, tallest (375 ft.) building in the city, the United States Customs and Courts Building, the City Hall, the Soldiers Memorial, and the Municipal Auditorium, containing an opera house seating 3500 persons and an arena seating 12,500 persons; Union Station; the Old Courthouse, completed in 1862, scene of the Dred Scott (q.v.) trial; the old Roman Catholic cathedral; and the Old Rock House, oldest house in the city, a former fur-trading post. Forest Park, the principal municipal park, contains the Jefferson Memorial, of white marble in semiclassical design, housing the collection of the Missouri Historical Society and the trophies and medals of Charles A. Lindbergh, the American aviator; and the St. Louis Art Museum, one of the outstanding art galleries of the U.S. The park, covering an area of about 1400 acres, also contains the zoological gardens and the municipal open-air theater, largest of its kind in the U.S. Numerous smaller parks provide additional recreational facilities, and the Missouri Botanical Garden (125 acres) is noted for its extensive variety of plant life.

St. Louis was founded in 1764 as a fur-trading station by René Auguste Chouteau, representing the interests of Pierre Laclède Liguest, a French merchant in New Orleans. It was named in honor of Louis IX (Saint Louis) of France. The settlement came into Spanish possession in 1763 and, as the capital of Upper Louisiana, under actual Spanish authority in 1770. On March 9, 1804, the Spanish lieutenant governor Charles De Lassus formally transferred Upper Louisiana to Capt. Amos Stoddard of the U.S. Army, in accordance with the terms of the Louisiana Purchase (q.v.) concluded the year before. Under the Americans St. Louis became in turn the seat of government of the District of Louisiana in 1804, of the Territory of Louisiana in 1805 and, in 1812, of the Territory of Missouri. It was incorporated as a town in 1808 and in the same year the first newspaper w. of the Mississippi R., the Louisiana Gazette, was published at St. Louis. The city of St. Louis was chartered in 1822. Until almost the middle of the 19th century, the fur trade remained the principal industry there, with many great fur companies competing for dominance, including the American Fur Company of John Jacob Astor (q.v.).

With the enormous increase in the 19th century of river traffic, and later of railroad transportation, St. Louis developed in commercial and industrial importance. Many European immigrants, notably from Germany and Ireland, settled there. During the Civil War the city was a center of Unionist sympathy. Following the war the city continued to progress in all fields of development. It became the center of a philosophic and cultural school known as "the St. Louis Movement", based primarily upon the philosophic teachings of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Hegel (q.v.), which had an important influence on the cultural development of the Middle West. In 1904 the city was the site of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (see Exhibitions and Expositions), from which the Jefferson Memorial and St. Louis Art Museum remain. In 1936 the National Park Service began preliminary work on the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, to commemorate the territorial expansion of the United States. Now a national historic site, the memorial covers 37 blocks along the central riverfront district of the city. Pop. (1950) 856,796; of the metropolitan district (1959) 1,681,281.