The Times has commissioned a new edition of the English Encyclopedia

Budapesti Hírlap, July 1902 (Volume 22, No. 178-208) 1902-07-09 / No. 186

The Times has arranged a new edition of the English Encyclopedia, the first fascicle of which was put to the press by some Scottish nobles in 1678, and published in Edinburgh by Colin Macfarghuar. The first edition was in three volumes, containing two thousand six hundred and seventy leaves, and the third volume was published in 1771. In 1861 the work reached its eighth edition, which was then twenty-one volumes and eighteen thousand leaves; and the ninth edition in 1875 was twenty-four volumes and twenty-seven thousand leaves, containing sixty thousand articles and three thousand illustrations. This was also published in Edinburgh by the Black firm. From 1875 to 1897 nine thousand copies were sold, at over a thousand crowns a copy, about nine million crowns being sold, and here business came to a standstill, by which time it was generally believed that the Encyclopedia had done its job.

The publishers of the Times were struck by a seemingly insignificant incident in 1897: at a book auction, the Encyclopedia, which had been offered for fifteen pounds, sold for twenty pounds. In America, where it was sold cheaper, pirate booksellers put a lot of copies on the market. The Black company claimed: there were few buyers, so they had to sell it expensively! The publishers of the Times reasoned: there were few buyers because the book was expensive. The publishers agreed with the Black company on this. The Blacks did not want to organize a new edition and, in return for a certain percentage of the copies, they transferred the publishing rights to the Times. The Times immediately issued an invitation and offered the twenty-four volumes for exactly half the price that the Black company had offered; He also recruited signatories to pay in monthly installments so that the total price, three hundred and seventy crowns, could be paid off in eleven months.

After the call, nine thousand signatories came forward within a week, that is, five million crowns. At the end of 1898, an order was placed for eighteen thousand copies; the Times added another volume to the twenty-four and now publishes eighty-five thousand articles on twenty-eight thousand pages with four thousand five hundred pictures.

The whole business, which has no equal in the book trade, represents today twenty-eight million crowns, with forty-four thousand subscribers, and the Times has lost only one percent of this amount through death and fraud, although it had expected five percent.