In praise of encyclopedias
Simon Winchester recalls the time — he was not yet three — when, stepping into his rubber boot, he was stung by a wasp. He rates this penetrating moment as his first “acquisition of knowledge.” Readers of his many books may thank that wasp for starting Winchester on his ever-widening path to further knowledge. His new book, Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge, from Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic (KWWK for short), is what that wasp hath wrought. It follows close on the heel of Simon Garfield’s entertaining study, All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia (AKW for short). Despite the title, Garfield’s ambitions are more cabined than Winchester’s.
