“Ball of Fire” is a terrific 1941 Howard Hawks comedy starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. Stanwyck is an ultra-hip nightclub singer and gangster moll who falls in with a ragtag group of professors (led by Cooper) who have been holed up for years in a dusty Manhattan mansion writing the ultimate encyclopedia of knowledge. Cooper, the linguist of the group, starts out studying Stanwyck for her use of contemporary slang and ends up falling head over heels for her.
Cooper and Stanwyck were at their best, and there are a couple of wonderful nightclub scenes, including one where Gene Krupa plays Drum Boogie on a cocktail table using a matchbook. Here are a couple of stills from Ball of Fire.
I don’t know if that’s how encyclopedias were really written in 1941, but it’s a great plot line that got me thinking about my own brush with encyclopedic knowledge. For generations of curious youngsters, paging through the family set of encyclopedias was their first exposure to the big wide world out there.
When I was a kid, we had a set of World Book Encyclopedias, thanks in part to a visit from the company to my grade school. I was in third grade and the sales representatives gave us some sort of test and free literature to take home to our parents. That, and a tiny little pin that said, “We Never Guess, We Look it Up!” Of course, I still have that pin.
My parents bought the set, and I imagine the company offered easy payments. That was typical in those days because an encyclopedia set was expensive — close to $350 in 1962, and from some later ads I have it’s clear you could fork out $1,500 for a really good set of encyclopedias.
While our set came from World Book, the most popular publisher was Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Most encyclopedias were sold door-to-door in those days. Usually a parent sent in a coupon or called a number, then the company sent someone to discuss the merits of having such a wealth of knowledge right there in the house. Encyclopedia companies played off the guilt factor: Many ads showed the consequences of both good and bad study habits. There was nothing like a bad report card to spur sales!
Knowledge is a pretty easy sell, actually. What parent wouldn’t want great books of knowledge around? And these sets weren’t marketed just for the kids. Here, in fact, is an encyclopedia set about raising the little tykes, and an ad promoting an encyclopedia as a romantic Christmas gift.
Having an encyclopedia in the home certainly was a plus. I spent hours paging through it. Today, of course, in-home encyclopedias are rare, and I wonder what the consequences are. You can argue that the vast amount of knowledge brought into the home through the Internet dwarfs these limited-volume and quickly-out-of-date print pubications.
I think the concept of browsing has changed the most. When there’s too much information, as in the case of the World Wide Web, it’s more difficult to stumble onto things (at least things that are wholesome and educational).
There was a certain satisfaction that came from realizing you could eventually learn most of it, starting with A and ending with Z. But that knowledge was filtered through the publisher. We’re better off in today’s world with its easier access to history and cultural perspectives from many sources.
I know kids spend just as much time in front of computer screen as I did on the den floor reading those World Books. I just wonder if they ever learn about the ore Bismuth just because it happens to fall between Bismarck and Bisson.
Please share your encyclopedia stories by clicking the Comments button, and tune into my weekly podcast by visiting Inside Digital Design or by looking me up on iTunes.
This article was last modified on May 18, 2023
This article was first published on December 5, 2008
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World Book, book D, for deaf, Page 50 had the the sign language alphabet. I taught myself basic spelling. 34 years later I am nurse who still loves to learn. We NEVER guessed, we looked it up! Thank you for the walk down memory lane.
thanks We were too poor for a whole set when I was a kid, so we depended on one big book at home and frequent trips to the public library for more detailed sohbet information.
I loved our family Britannica set so much that I bought the CD/online version when it came out, and was disappointed to find it was completely lacking the depth and scope of the printed set that my dad had bought in the fifties. The article on Guerilla Warfare in our edition was written by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)! How cool was that?
Hi there, Gene. My name is jess yu; i’m a writer at the university of pennsylvania and recently came across your 2004 heavy metal madness entry ‘my smokestack is bigger than your smokestack.’ it so happens i’m writing an article about smokestacks (and smokestack demolitions)–from an industrial+artistic perspective. i was wondering if you’d be willing to speak with me for a few minutes about smokestacks/industrial things/your interest in archival subject matter, etc. (the commissioned piece i’m working on is a non-fic article) would greatly appreciate it if you could hit me back when you get the chance. my email is jessyu@sas.upenn.edu. thanks in advance. all warmest, jess
Gene, thanks for a fun piece! I remember “learning” about encyclopedias in elementary school; and how it was hammered into us that THESE were the books that we could not borrow, and must handle more carefully than others. I’m still a little nervous when I walk down the reference aisles in a library. I remember, too, when my entire class went to the library to do research for an assignment, that there was always a rush for the “good” encyclopedia (the shortest entries and easiest to read and carry, I think).
Helene Smith
…one of our neighbors, a wonderful lady (elderly at the time) was a salesperson. We also had the Childcraft books, the orange-bound set shown in the “Will YOU become an unloved parent” ad :^) I believe this is known as the 1948 edition, and volumes 1 and 2 featured probably the greatest collection of children’s book illustration (by a virtual who’s who of the day’s artists) ever assembled — well worth seeking out on eBay!
Thanks for another great article!
I was lucky that my Dad was a bookhound who found joy in every type of book. Our house was full of every type of printed material from novels and cookbooks to atlases and encyclopedia sets.
I still own the first encyclopedia set that he bought: a ten-volume set of the Concise Encyclopedia (Illustrated), printed in 1933 in London, England. I occasionally bring a volume down from my bookshelf to leaf through it. Each page evokes a happy memory for me.
“Of course I still have that pin.”
I am of a younger generation where the internet did become a huge part of browsing and learning about new topics. Luckily, my teachers did push the traditional way of research, so I am very familiar with Encyclopedias. We had a full set in my house, and sadly, it now lives in a box in the garage- outdated and neglected. You’ve convinced me to bring it out, dust it off, and save it for the next generation.
Like trouper44, I enjoy the serendipity that comes from the Dewey decimal system. Even now that my library uses a digital database, not actual cards, I enjoy seeing what’s on the shelves around the original book I was interested in.
Terri Stone
Editor in Chief, CreativePro.com
My parents had a one volulme book – family medicine. I remember looking through this volume many times. The entries that described hearing and seeing, showed little men inside your head – e.g running a movie projector…It was a few years before I learned this wasn’t so! I still use browsing as a way of finding information in the public library. I use the general call number for the subject area I am interested in and then just browse the shelves. Great way to find books that you didn’t know about.
We were too poor for a whole set when I was a kid, so we depended on one big book at home and frequent trips to the public library for more detailed information.