Encyclopedia Of World Biography Author

Working With Encyclopedia Of World Biography Author

I picked up a copy of the Encyclopedia Of World Biography roughly fifteen years ago when I was building a reference list for a publishing project. The set is massive, somewhere around twenty-one volumes depending on which edition you're looking at. It's published by Gale, originally put together by Richard Taylor and a team of researchers. The whole thing covers notable figures from antiquity through roughly the early 2000s, with entries ranging from a few hundred words to several pages. It's not a single author that you cite the way you would a novel. The work is editorial, meaning the "author" field in library catalogs lists Richard Taylor as the primary editor, with contributions from dozens of biographers across the volumes. When you're citing it in academic work, you typically credit the editor and note the volume number, not an individual biographer unless a specific entry names one. The structure is alphabetical, roughly organized. Each volume has its own index at the back, and the full set includes a master index in the final volume. That master index is where most people end up spending the bulk of their time, because the individual volume indexes don't always catch cross-references properly.

How to actually use it without wasting half a day

Start with the master index in volume 21. Look up the name you need there first, then go to the volume and page it points you toward. I used to flip straight to the alphabetical volumes, which worked fine for common names but became painful when you were dealing with entries that were shelved under a different name than expected. Here's the edge case that almost made me throw the set out: I once spent forty-five minutes looking for someone named "Chopin" who apparently wasn't the composer. The index pointed me to a very brief mention, but the full biography I actually needed was under a different spelling variation that the index didn't cross-reference. I eventually found it by checking the surname index in volume 21, which listed alternate spellings separately from the main entry. That volume 21 index is genuinely worth knowing inside out, because it catches things the alphabetical arrangement misses. The set also includes portraits and photographs scattered throughout, though the quality is inconsistent. Some volumes have glossy plates; others have grainy scans that are barely legible. Don't expect a uniform visual standard across all twenty-one volumes.

What it gets wrong and where it falls apart

Let's be honest about the limitations. The publication date of the main set is late 1990s to early 2000s depending on the edition, which means anyone who died or achieved prominence after that window is simply absent. This isn't a minor gap. You won't find biographies of people who died in the 2000s, let alone the 2010s or 2020s. The coverage skews Western. European and North American figures dominate, sometimes heavily. You'll find dozens of entries on English monarchs, American presidents, and French philosophers, but a contemporary figure from sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia might get a paragraph or two at most. If your research focuses outside the Western canon, this set will disappoint you quickly. Another issue: some entries read like they were written by committee. You can tell when the same boilerplate phrasing repeats across multiple biographies, especially in the sections about early life and education. The later volumes improved somewhat, but the earlier ones have that generic reference-work tone throughout.

For living figures or recent deaths, you're better off using the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or the Biographical Database of Emerging Scholars instead. Those sources get updated regularly and handle contemporary subjects properly.

Citation format

If you're citing a specific entry, the standard format credits the editor Richard Taylor, lists the volume, the page range, and Gale as the publisher. Something along the lines of: Taylor, Richard, editor. Encyclopedia Of World Biography. Vol. X, Gale, 1998-2002. Always include the volume number. Referencing just "Encyclopedia Of World Biography" without a volume is almost never sufficient for academic citation, and reviewers will flag it.

Getting access

The physical set runs several thousand dollars new, so most people aren't buying it outright. Universities and large public libraries usually carry a copy. Gale also offers it through their online databases, which is the practical route for most researchers if your institution has a subscription. The online version has better search functionality than the print set, though the content itself is essentially the same. If you only need a handful of biographies, interlibrary loan is probably your best move. The process takes three to five business days typically, and it saves you from having to hunt down a subscription or visit a library across town.

Bottom line

It's a solid reference for pre-2000s biographical research, particularly if your subjects fall within the Western tradition. It's not the only tool you should reach for, and it definitely shouldn't be your first or only source for anyone who died after the turn of the millennium. But for what it covers, done well, it still does the job if you know how to navigate its quirks.