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Reviews
> Find out how a selection of librarians and academics are using the Oxford DNB
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Worth paying for ... with in-depth biographies of 56,000 individuals, all meticulously sourced and verified.
The Times, 30 December 2007
- In praise of ... the Dictionary of National Biography
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, published in 2004 in 60 volumes and 60,305 pages, and sold for £6,500, is one of the last great products of the age of print, now giving way with some grace to the digital era.
From the start the aim was to update the DNB in its electronic form, expanding and correcting the online edition rather than issuing new printed versions, as was the case with the original edition.
This month entries were added for 202 men and women who died in 2003, from Idi Amin to Adam Faith and many other lives in between. Access, via library subscriptions, is free for almost anyone who wants it, on a home computer. The DNB team even email out a life of the day, an erudite way to clutter your inbox.
The Guardian, Leader page, 8 January 2007
[For more on how to access the ODNB via your public library, click here]
[For full details of the January update, click here.]
- Visitors to the ‘Holbein in England’ exhibition at Tate Britain will probably leave wanting to know more about the people he painted. The website of the indispensable Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has stepped in, with biographies of some of his sitters along with their portraits, so that we might “discover the soldiers, scholars, and schemers of the Tudor court”. Each biography is lengthy and scrupulously detailed.
The Times, 14 October 2006
Visit the ODNB's Holbein gallery during the Tate's exhibition (September 2006 to January 2007).
‘A truly great British enterprise has recently enriched our reading resources ... Electronically [the Oxford DNB] supports a website which offers unrivalled search facilities—you can look up everyone who has the same name as you, for example, the same birthday, or who ever lived in the same locality ... most public libraries now stock it or have electronic access to it, so if your local library does not, ask them to do so without delay.’
- ‘The life stories of notable domestic servants whose years of faithful attention to famous employers have been largely ignored by historians, have been told in depth for the first time. The latest online edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography recounts their narratives and reveals a fascinating insight not only into life “below stairs” but into the complex and at times touching relationship between master and servant.’
The Independent,7 October 2006
- Jonathan Brown reviews the October 2006 update of the ODNB with a special focus on lives in service.
You can read more about two servants added to the Oxford DNB in October 2006: irascible butler Henry Moat and Pasqua Rosee, founder of London's first coffee-house.
- ‘Victoria Hughes has become the first professional lavatory attendant to make it into the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, that all-devouring leviathan of British heroes and eccentrics.’
The Daily Telegraph, 7 October 2006
For subscribers: read more about Victoria Hughes
‘The website for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography might sound a bit worthy, but it's an utterly fascinating treasure trove of our national life, covering everybody from Lady Godiva to Winston Churchill. I can't think of a site that better captures the splendid richness of our history - or the infinite variety of our ancestors.’
Every day, Stanley Green (1915–93) cycled from his council flat in Northwood, Middlesex, to Oxford Street, with his placard on a pole reading: "Less Passion. From Less Protein: Meat, Fish, Bird, Egg, Cheese, Peas, incl Lentils, Beans, Nuts." Later, he added: "And Sitting." . . . Stanley Green, eccentric in his message, its expression and the invented science behind it, was not motivated by religion, remaining agnostic. But he was an undeniable example of the importance of individuals in the spread of ideals.
Green is one of the 127 new lives added this month to that giant hungry caterpillar the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. It has now ingested 55,684 people. How we love it.
'In its reborn form, paying proper attention to social and cultural diversity . . . and to modern views of what constitutes historical significance, the DNB is a glorious achievement.
'It is fully searchable on-line, which not only gives it a far greater flexibility but also makes it possible for someone researching a particular area to select by location rather than simply by name . . . Local historians everywhere should make the fullest possible use of the DNB, not least because, via an agreement negotiated with county and borough library services, it is now available on-line and free of charge to almost everyone who has a public library membership. The Oxford DNB is one of the heroic monuments of our age, the even more illustrious successor to an already illustrious parent.'
How else could I discover, at two in the morning and chasing a deadline, how many times Lord Rosebery's horses won the Derby when he was Prime Minister—or how many petitions Thomas Clarkson collected in his 1824 campaign against slavery? I tracked down that last one, incidentally, by dialling up the internet while passing through Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and using my Westminster library card number.
- 'To a biography reader, the result is a work that's fascinating and addictive.'
[On online occupation searching:] 'The editors have used dozens of categories . . . It's a staggering list and it works beautifully in bringing together diverse people who share a calling, even if living in different centuries.'
'Make no mistake . . . the ODNB is already a classic serving history, literature, and British studies generally'- John Schmitt, The Charleston Advisor, January 2006
- Professor John Sutherland chooses the Oxford DNB as his ideal desert island book (but unfortunately isn't allowed—unlike Ronald Searle, 10 July 2005).
- BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, 22 January 2006
- ' . . . it is also intriguing to find how some stones from the untidy mason's yard of the Daily Telegraph obituaries department have been built into this new transept of the Chartres Cathedral that is the ODNB.'
- 'A paradigm of a reference work'
- Judges for the British Book Design and Production Awards (8 November 2005). The Oxford DNB won the 2005 best book award in the 'Academic and Reference' category.
- 'Some are well-known: Roger Hargreaves, author of 43 Mr Men and 30 Little Miss books. Some deserve to be better known: Alec Reeves "the father of the digital age", who invented 'pulse code modulation', the basis of modern digital communication . . . However, it's the barely heard-of who provide the most amusement. Robert Cadman (1711–40), for example, was a rope-walker whose act involved sliding face-first down a rope from the top of St Paul's blowing a trumpet and firing pistols as he went. Alas a fatal fall in Shrewsbury brought an end to the Shropshire lad and the so-called "flying craze" of the 1730s.'
- 'in its treatment of Irish people on the world stage . . . the new edition sparkles.'
- The Irish Times, 1 October 2005 [review of the October 2005 update, which contains 30 new Irish lives]
- 'I've been having some fun with the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, the vast, and vastly readable, 60-volume compendium of 55,000 lives, which is celebrating its first birthday this month. It's going to be available online (23–25 September), so you can call up, in a matter of seconds, a few thousand words on the politician or pigeon-fancier of your choice.
This has been the most entertainingly serendipitous browse I've had in years. Do go and look yourself, even if it's only to look up your own name in the DNB and find, with a slight feeling of annoyance, there have been 10 versions of you in history already.'- John Walsh, The Independent, 20 Sept 2005
- 'Brilliant! . . . The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a miracle: a towering work of reference containing more than 50,000 acute and riveting pen portraits of remarkable people connected to the British Isles.
Among recent inclusions are the author Douglas Adams, scary painter Ken Kiff, cocktail inventor James Pimm and Harold Davis, a sometime coal miner better known as the high-wire artiste the Great Alzana.
Yet names are only the tip of the iceberg. Each portrait is copiously cross-linked, and following these extraordinary back alleys is an addictive way to increase your knowledge; [via the online edition] the biography is also searchable by date, interest or keyword.
Casual browsers will also be pleased to know that a different biography is posted on the site every day for free viewing, and you can even have it e-mailed to you . . . an immense and civilised achievement.'- Robbie Hudson, The Sunday Times, 18 September 2005
- 'The new Oxford DNB is proving a provocative and enjoyable tool for getting students to think critically about biography as a form of historical writing with its own generic conventions, implicit theoretical investments, and evolving history.'
- Professor Seth Koven, Villanova University, USA, September 2005
- 'The power of online searching means that we can find information about people who do not have their own entries and that is what so clearly moves the service beyond static volumes on our shelves.'
- Liz Chapman, Deputy Director, UCL Library Services, University College London, UK, September 2005
- Illustrator and satirist Ronald Searle chooses the Oxford DNB as the book he'd most like to take to a desert island.
- BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, 10 July 2005
- 'The ODNB is epoch-making: it marks the coming of age of digital scholarship . . . It asks to be judged on practicality, accuracy and accessibility, and it triumphantly passes the test.'
'This is simply the best website that I have ever consulted. It is beautifully designed, fast and comprehensive . . . [a] superb production.'- Professor Kevin Whelan, History Ireland, May/June 2005
- 'A triumph of vision and execution—a work that exploits the highest quality scholarship, yet has universal appeal.'
- Elspeth Hyams, Library and Information Update (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, UK), June 2005
- 'A fine genealogical research tool that allows you to explore family history, heredity, and even ethnic identity.'
'The ODNB is astonishingly, admirably modern and outbids all its rivals. Its online version . . . opens a world of wonders . . . It is enthralling. One entry leads to another, and another, and another, and you learn things you never knew you needed or wanted to know.'
'There are many other entries beautifully matched with their subjects . . . Malcolm Bradbury on Angus Wilson is excellent, and so is David Lodge on Malcolm Bradbury: these portraits are alive with personal knowledge and feeling, and were captured at the right moment.'- Margaret Drabble, Prospect, May 2005
- 'The reference value to indexers is incalculable. As an authority for identification and for accuracy of names and spellings, dates and other factual matters, it is one of the first sources we consult for British figures.'
'[the ODNB] will be a magnetic draw in whatever libraries we consult: a dependable and magnificent reference work on which we can all rely.'- The Indexer (journal of the British Society of Indexers), April 2005
- 'Published after 12 years of preparation to almost universal acclaim . . . this extraordinary resource is worth every penny.'
- Library Journal, April 2005 (the Oxford DNB heads the Library Journal's list of best reference sources, 2004)
- 'It is hard to imagine any library with online resources documenting English history, literature, language, and culture not wanting to acquire this work. Its breadth, depth, and flexibility make it very much the peer of its distinguished Oxford cousin, the OED Online.'
- Association of College and Research Libraries (USA), March 2005
- 'A monument to scholarship, the ODNB also affirms the sheer joy of reading, and one of its many pleasures is the serendipitous discovery that comes from leisurely browsing . . . perhaps the happiest marriage yet of print and electronic publishing.'
- National Book Critics Circle, March 2005 (the Oxford DNB is the first reference work to be awarded a special citation, at the NBCC's annual awards, 2005)
- 'a gigantic, magnificent undertaking . . . It belongs in all libraries',
- Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, February 2005
- 'Every visit to shelf or screen has left me in a state of head-shaking amazement at the quantity of exact information packed into its pages.'
'Surely no other project could come near . . . in commanding the labour of so many busy people . . . Also impressive is how frequently those who have already written the authoritative intellectual biography have been persuaded to contribute an epitome here.'
'The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has refreshed and fortified our sense of what can still be meant by the collective endeavour of "scholarship"'.
- 'What the philosopher David Stove said about the DNB is true also of its successor: it is "a work which it would be merely impertinent to praise: it is simply the most valuable book of reference in existence."'
'With the ODNB, sophisticated internet-based publishing has definitively entered the mainstream. This is a resource you can use and enjoy.'- Roger Kimball, New Criterion, Jan 2005
- 'It is difficult to overemphasise the value of the material on offer in ODNB . . . With full reference data appended to this extraordinarily rich textual content, the ODNB is a source for research, scholarship and reference which far exceeds its apparent coverage. Taken together with the online Oxford English Dictionary, this reaffirms the reputation of Oxford University Press (as if it needed any reaffirmation) at the apex of heroic, and triumphant, scholarly publishing ventures.'
- Stuart James (university librarian, University of Paisley), Geography, Biography, and History, 19/1 (2005); also in Reference Reviews, Jan 2005
- 'I am in no doubt that the Dictionary is a great achievement—a worthy successor to the DNB of Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee . . . Its scholarly virtues are matched by its breadth of spirit and liveliness.'
'The impressive thing is how much ground has been covered, and how many byways (and highways) the reader is left free to explore.'- John Gross, Times Literary Supplement, 17 Dec 2004
- 'Undoubtedly the history publishing event of 2004 . . . a remarkable and sophisticated updating of a Victorian masterwork . . . an intellectual wonderland for all scholars and enthusiasts.'
- Tristram Hunt, The Times, 11 Dec 2004
- '[the Oxford DNB] will surely be one of the great publishing achievements of this century . . . the writing is always clear, frequently graceful, and more than occasionally sharp. Of the tens of thousands of entries, hundreds are masterpieces of pen portraiture.'
- Benjamin Schwartz, Atlantic Monthly, Dec 2004
- '[The ODNB is] a major work of reference, but it also contains some of the best gossip in the world.'
- John Gross, Sunday Telegraph, 28 Nov 2004
- 'A world of information, authoritatively culled and checked, written with wit, deftly illustrated, is at one's fingertips. The huge website is superbly designed and easy to navigate. Who could ask for anything more?'
- Humphrey Carpenter, Sunday Times, 28 Nov 2004
- 'Related in good, spare, modern English, never pompous, tedious or dry, every story fascinates . . . The new ODNB will enrich your life, and the national life.'
- Matthew Parris, The Spectator, 27 Nov 2004
- 'One of the greatest feats of scholarly publishing ever.'
- Jonathan Sumption, The Spectator, 20 Nov 2004
- 'Easy to browse and just plain fascinating ... an invaluable resource.'
- Mark Chillingworth, Information World Review, Nov 2004
- 'An astonishing piece of work: a colossal, beautiful, fully functional and utterly user-friendly engine of enlightenment.'
- Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph, 24 Oct 2004
- 'That the DNB is hot is an understatement.'
'The amount of information is staggering, and the quality superb . . . librarians will be utterly beguiled.'
'Illustrates how very much OUP gets it when it comes to how online research is done.'
'How good is it? A perfect ten . . . Resoundingly recommended for all libraries'
'- Cheryl LaGuardia, Library Journal, 15 October 2004
- 'It includes not just the great and good, but people who have left a mark for any reason, good, bad or bizarre.'
- Mary Ann Gwinn, The Seattle Times, 3 Oct 2004
- 'This is a work that makes superlatives superfluous.'
- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, International Herald Tribune, 29 Sept 2004
- 'One can say confidently and without exaggeration that it is the publishing event of the year or perhaps the decade . . . Simon Ball's Baldwin and Paul Addison's Churchill are outstanding . . . To have witnessed the publication of the Oxford DNB could almost make you proud to be English again.'
- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The Spectator, 25 Sept 2004
- 'A momentous achievement.'
- Sunday Express, 26 Sept 2004
- 'The new Dictionary of National Biography is a national treasure, indeed an international treasure.'
- Richard Lofthouse, Financial Times Magazine, 25 Sept 2004
- 'Without doubt the publishing event of the year.'
- Giles Foden, The Guardian, 25 Sept 2004
- 'The DNB should be in the national curriculum. Every home should have a set. Sell the car and buy the new DNB.'
- Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph, 25 Sept 2004
- 'It is a magnificent national pantheon . . . a vast cornucopia of delight as well as an indispensable source of information. It is an unrivalled distillation of biographical knowledge and understanding.'
'Paul Addison's Churchill (he compares Winston to Richmal Crompton's William) is a miniature masterpiece.'- Piers Brendon, The Independent 24 Sept 2004
- It is probably the world's greatest reference work.'
- Wall Street Journal, Europe, 24 September 2004
- '[the launch of the Oxford DNB is like] . . . the floatation of one of the last great Edwardian ocean liners.'
- John Ezard, The Guardian, 23 Sept 2004
- 'Utterly enthralling.'
'The best book of the year, or possibly the century.'
'A more enthralling read than all the novels ever entered
for the Booker Prize put together.'
'What a book! What a bunch! And what a country!'- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Daily Mail, 23 Sept 2004
- 'We shall go on complaining about supermarkets, banks and all that's wrong in Britain
today. But over the ODNB—rejoice!'
- Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph, 2 Aug 2004
- 'It's nothing less than the family snapshot album of the island race . . . one of the biggest publishing ventures ever undertaken in this country . . . The DNB is not
just a prodigious piece of scholarship; it's also a mirror of Britishness.'
- Godfrey Smith, Sunday Times, 1 Aug 2004
- 'There is fascination and scholarship in equal measure to be found on every single page of this
extraordinary endeavour . . . The Oxford DNB brings the figures of our national story into sharp focus, brilliantly illuminating the darkest corners of our remarkable past.'
- Simon Winchester, author
of The Meaning of Everything
- 'One of the most audacious publishing programmes of all time'
- David Smith, The Observer, 4 Jan 2004
- 'Rejoice! rejoice! . . . the great publishing event of 2004.'
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