The World Book

By Tom Poland

A lulu of a lady sold my parents a set of the World Book Encyclopedia. Miss Lulu Goolsby to be exact. It changed my life living in rural Georgia as I did. I read that set from A to Z at least three times.

Back then the only library in the world was our school’s library—Miss Sarah Spratlin’s one-room collection of books organized by the Dewey Decimal System. The 200s covered Religion, the 600s Technology, and the 800s covered Literature. We had to memorize all ten classes, and walk on command to a given classification where it sat on the shelves.

In the early 1960s, unlike today, we were not drowning in information. We had no Google, the uber-fast search engine. I was not without resources, however. That 1961 World book Encyclopedia, a handsome set of books rich with information, photographs, and illustrations kept me busy. I read the entire set from the first word in the “A” volume to the last word in the “W-X-Y-Z” volume. That set of red, blue, and gold books, marketed as a “family encyclopedia, was my google. Many homework assignments owed their success to those books of knowledge. On a rainy cold winter day, I would grab a volume and read it from cover to cover.

Like software, you could “update” your set of encyclopedias. You bought a yearly update. Ours was white and green. We didn’t get it each year, just now and then. Pricy. I have no idea what the entire set or the “supplement” cost but it wasn’t cheap. It literally was an investment in our education. It also provided entertainment. Whenever things got a bit boring I could always get a volume out and read about places I knew I’d never see.

After my mother died, the World Book Encyclopedia set became mine. I can’t bring myself to sell it. I got an email from a fellow wanting to buy it but I could not bear to part with it, sentimental fool that I am.

I got the “I” volume out of a box yesterday and dusted it off. I was curious to see what words appeared where “Internet” would be. “Internationale” and “internuncio” neighbored each other. Nor would the “W” volume have had a “worldwide web” entry. The World Book Encyclopedia and its old hardcover competitors are time capsules.

Today I google stuff, a great advantage to researchers, writers, and the curious, but it doesn’t possess the dignity of those old volumes. The faux leather cover still holds up, as handsome as ever. Hefty, the volumes feel substantial in the hand. Well-made, the volumes have withstood the test of time, looking almost new. My set is 65 years old. It came along before President Kennedy was shot, before we put a man on the moon, and before Civil Rights legislation was passed. You won’t find the Beatles in it nor will you see words like Microsoft, iMac, or Google in it.

World Book Encyclopedia came into existence in 1915 in Chicago and is 111 years old. Today for $250 you can buy an online subscription to it. You log in with a user name and password.

I guess a lot of old encyclopedias gather dust now. I hear that collectors will pay $1,000 for old World Book Encyclopedia sets. I see online, however, that they are going for much less than that. That doesn’t matter to me. What matters are my memories of reading the encyclopedia. It was much like the wish book, the Sears Roebuck catalog, though encyclopedia photographs were black and white unlike the catalog’s bright colors.

World Book … I saw places I wanted to go and things I wanted to do. Then as now, I never lost sight of the fact that a big world is out there. I wanted to learn all about it. If Miss Lulu had sold my parents passports to new and interesting places she could not have done better.

Photo by Tom Poland

Georgia native Tom Poland writes a weekly column about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and culture and speaks frequently to groups in the South. Governor Henry McMaster conferred the Order of the Palmetto upon Tom, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor, stating, “His work is exceptional to the state.” Poland’s work appears in books, magazines, journals, and newspapers throughout the South.

Visit Tom’s website at www.tompoland.net

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