Review by Choice Review
The editors, veterans at compiling reference books, have set themselves a daunting task: to prepare a work of more than 10,000 biographical entries about women from more than 300 contributors, to be complete in 15 volumes in December 2000, with indexes published by the middle of 2001. In the first three volumes, A - COLD, the editors have made some wise choices that aid readers. They allot generous space for such major figures as Aspasia (three and a half pages), Mary Beard (five), and Coco Chanel (four and a half). Women bearing some relation to main biographical subjects are treated in sidebars. Recognizing the difficulties posed by varied name forms (Catherine of Siena, Catherina Benincasa, Caterina di Iacopo de Benincasa), the editors provide cross-references and also list all the variant forms at the beginning of the biographical entry. To make the connections among royal and noble women more understandable, the first volume includes 90 genealogical charts. Unhappily, the editors do not explain criteria for inclusion, nor the reasons for differing treatment (full entry versus a sidebar or an abbreviated entry). They acknowledge that many women writers have been excluded due to space limitations and hope that future supplements may include more authors and will expand some of the brief entries in the original set. More disappointing is the general quality of titles in the "Sources" and "Suggested Reading" sections at the ends of articles, which often omit scholarly books or articles. Recommended for all libraries. M. C. Schaus; Haverford College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Women rejoice. Your encyclopedia is finally here. This review covers the first three volumes (Aak^-Cold); remaining volumes will be published over the coming months, scheduled for completion in December 2000, with indexes by mid-2001. There will be 10,000 biographies, 6,000 of them signed, covering a period from 3100 B.C.E. to the modern age. The editors researched wives, daughters, mothers, and other women who were not documented in traditional, male-oriented sources, especially history books. The original plan was to include only those deceased before 1926 but soon was altered to include women of the 1960s feminist era and those "whose places in history are secure." These are represented by such people as Jane Goodall and Aung San Suu Kyi. The work includes women of historical interest from all walks of life and is truly international in scope. Three hundred contributors from 20 nations participated. Not all primary sources were in English, and translations were sometimes necessary. The editors plan supplements and invite additions and corrections. Organization is alphabetical. Cross-referencing is plentiful, with sidebars supplying fuller information on other women mentioned within entries but not given entries of their own. There are see references from royal title to primary name (Austrian Tyrol, archduchess of see Medici, Claudia de); real name to pseudonym (Allyn, Ellen see Rossetti Christina); and from individuals to groups (Andrews, Laverne see Andrews Sisters). Groups include America3 team; Amazon army of Dahomey; and Astronauts, women in space. Some entries are only a sentence or two because of lack of information, but the majority include most or all of the following: dates, if known, or time of flourishing; an identifying summary of life and achievements; a personal profile with vital statistics and names of family members; events in the life of the biographee; vitae listing such things as works for authors or winning records for athletes; a quotation by or about the individual; and bibliographical references. To illustrate the types of entries, volume two begins with an entry for a Senegalese kindergarten teacher (Mariama Ba, 1929^-1981) who wrote a novel that won the first Mona Award in Africa. A lengthy entry on Ba Trieu (225^-248 C.E.) is more than a simple biography; it provides two-and-one-half pages of background information on Chinese-Vietnamese relations and the role heroic women played as resistance fighters. A sidebar provides a brief overview of the life of another Vietnamese heroine, Bui Thi Xuan (d. 1771). The first volume features 90 genealogical charts arranged by country, from Belgium (the House of Saxe-Coburg) to Yugoslavia (rulers of Serbia), with women who are the subjects of entries highlighted. Many entries include black-and-white photographs, paintings, drawings, or portraits. Photographs include scenes from plays or films with actresses portraying the part of the biographees (for example, Elizabeth Taylor portraying one of the eight Cleopatras covered). Works exist on women in sports, women of America, and women of the twentieth century, to name a few categories, but there is nothing comparable to this encyclopedia's coverage of women from all over the world in all eras and all walks of life. It is suitable for supplementary reading for history assignments and is eye-opening, entertaining, and informative for almost any age group. Given the tremendous amount of research involved in collecting this data, the price is reasonable. Recommended for high-school, public, and academic libraries and other women's studies collections. Reference Books in Brief The following is a list of additional recent and recommended reference sources.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Projected to be 15 volumes upon completion in late 2000 (with an index to follow in mid-2001), this ambitious set will be international in scope and span from antiquity to the 20th century. (The first three volumes are reviewed here.) The scope is generally limited to women born before 1926, except for those active in the women's movement or whose place in history is assured. Initially hatched while the editors were working on Historic World Leaders (1994)--which profiled mainly men--this resource will include more than 10,000 entries varying in length from several pages to brief paragraphs. Frequent sidebars give information on women closely associated with the main entry, and numerous See references address name variations. Although indexes by time period, nationality, and subject would greatly enhance its usefulness as a reference, this set far exceeds recent single-volume international dictionaries (the Larousse Dictionary of Women, LJ 1/97, has about 3000 entries) and is unlikely to have any competitors on this scale soon. Recommended for large public and academic libraries and women's studies collections.--Patricia A. Beaber, Coll. of New Jersey, Ewing (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-This monumental, decade-in-the-making resource will be a cornerstone for collections supporting historical research of any sort. Digging assiduously through nearly 5000 years of often maddeningly vague records (the introduction on this alone makes prize reading), 300 plus contributors from 20 countries shed light on the lives of more than 10,000 women. That light doesn't always reveal much-"Adah. Biblical woman. First wife of Lamech; children: Jabal and Jubal"-but many entries run up to 10 double-column pages in length, with hundreds more in associated side boxes. All but the briefest articles are signed; all stir quotations and evaluations into systematic factual accounts and conclude with a list of books and other sources. The many black-and-white photos are dark but large, and sometimes expand the narrative intriguingly. Volume I is prefaced by 90 dynastic genealogical charts, and the final volume will contain several indexes. Though the editors admit to less thorough coverage of living writers and others in already well-documented areas, the trade-off will be worth it for any researcher seeking information on, say, all 8 Queen Cleopatras (plus 5 more women of that name), or the 10 Japanese empresses who reigned alone. The first 5 of the projected 15 volumes were published in 1999; the rest will appear periodically through 2000 with the index planned for 2001. An exemplary work.- John Peters, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by School Library Journal Review
