JG Ballard's Book of Knowledge
Marianne Brace interviewing JG Ballard, Independent, 15 Sept 2006
'I sold encyclopaedias door to door, a job at which I was surprisingly successful, partly because the Waverley encyclopaedia was the one I had read as a child in Shanghai — I knew it backwards and genuinely believed in it. ... and I often waived my commission ... to secure for them the hours of intelligent pleasure I had known as a child.
Cassell & Co publishers created the Waverley Book Company in 1909 to distrubute deluxe editions. One of their most successful products was the eight volume Book of Knowledge, the beloved encyclopaedia Ballard talks about above.
We can't be sure exactly which edition the Ballard family owned in the 1930s, but it was probably very similar to this one, which is undated, but internal evidence suggests it was produced in the 1920s.
As it is out of copyright, I have made a complete searchable facsimile of the Book of Knowledge so we can share the articles and images that so enraptured and enthused the young Ballard.
It's interesting to note that in 1992, Cassell & Co bought Victor Gollancz Ltd, Ballard's first British book publisher. (Thanks to David Pringle for that and other helpful leads.)
As a start, I recommend the articles on Aeroplane, Apperception (for its now shocking racism), Architecture, Army, Astronomy, Brain, China, Inventions, Kinematograph, Motor-Car, Novel, Race, Shanghai, Science, Wireless and World War.
You can browse by letter below, or use the search to find a particular subject or word.
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Mike Bonsall - December 2011 - m dot bonsall at gmail dot com