Welcome to the first Oxford DNB e-newsletter.
From September 2005 our e-newsletter will keep you up-to-date with new material in the Oxford DNB. The dictionary publishes three updates each year (timed for January, May and October), including new biographies and reference material to help with research. E-newsletters will provide you with full details of this new content, plus project news, feature essays, and competitions.
In this issue:
1. Oxford DNB celebrates its first birthday with free online access
2. Oxford DNB Newsletter no. 11 (September 2005)
3. New dictionary content from Thursday 6 October
4. The finest scholarship on the greatest people
In September we publish our annual Newsletter. In this issue the dictionary's editor Lawrence Goldman takes the Oxford DNB on the road; librarians and scholars offer ideas for using the Oxford DNB; and Philip Carter explains what's been added -- and what's to come -- in the Oxford DNB's first three online updates.
1. Oxford DNB first anniversary – free access weekend!
The Oxford DNB is celebrating its first birthday with three days’ free online access from 23-25 September. If you don’t already subscribe, why not discover why the Oxford DNB has been described as ‘the greatest reference work on earth’*. Click here to sign up for free access.
*(Daily Telegraph)
Oxford DNB in print or online – find out how you can get access
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The Oxford DNB could be yours!
In conjunction with The Times newspaper, Oxford University Press would like to offer you a chance to win a lifetime’s subscription to the Oxford DNB online, or your own copy of the 60-volume print edition. You will need to access the Oxford DNB in order to enter the competition. For details, please visit The Times online at www.timesonline.co.uk/books during the free access period.
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Reviews
‘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.'
Margaret Drabble, Prospect, May 2005
'The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has refreshed and fortified our sense of what can still be meant by the collective endeavour of "scholarship"'. Stefan Collini, London Review of Books, January 2005
(read full review here)
Read more press reaction on our reviews and comments page
Oxford DNB news: find out about awards and prizes for the Oxford DNB, and our latest online developments.
Did you know?
Thomas Parr (d.1635) is said to have done penance under a sheet for committing adultery at the age of 105.
The most populated street in the Oxford DNB is London’s Harley Street, where 150 dictionary subjects were one-time residents; the most frequently populated dwelling is the Tower of London with nearly 200 ‘residents’.
Britain’s first television chef was Marcel Boulestin (1878-1948) who appeared onscreen in 1937.
Oxford DNB subjects in their own words
‘When I was about twelve ... I used to think I must be a genius but nobody's noticed.’
John Lennon (1940-1980), musician
'For myself, I preferred washing a dog, or polishing a piece of Derbyshire spar, or breaking in a horse, to any accomplishment in the world.’
Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828), novelist
‘I fully expect to hear it recited by a thousand Girl Guides before I die.’
Philip Larkin (1922-1985), poet
On his famous poem 'This be the Verse'
('They f*** you up, your mum and dad')
Oxford Online
In addition to publishing over 4,600 new books each year, Oxford is a major provider of online information to libraries worldwide. For more information on our acclaimed resources, visit
http://www.oxfordonline.com/
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2. Oxford DNB Newsletter No. 11
On the road
Lawrence Goldman looks back on our first year since publication and reports on the Oxford DNB team’s travels with the dictionary.
Using the Oxford DNB
Margaret Mitchell on the Oxford DNB in the reference library
Liz Chapman and Debs Furness on the Oxford DNB in the university library
Margaret Hosking on the Oxford DNB on campus
Seth Koven on the Oxford DNB in the university classroom
Now with added biography!
Philip Carter on updating the Oxford DNB
3. New dictionary content from Thursday 6 October
Our next online update is published on Thursday 6 October. It includes new biographies of 97 men and women who left their mark on British life from the ninth to the late-twentieth century. The new lives focus on: historically important children; early modern women writers, and those who shaped the independent Irish state in its formative years. Other new biographies feature men and women now remembered for their local and international influence.
October highlights include: Annie Darwin (1841-1851), daughter of Charles and a subject of her father’s research; Roger Hargreaves (1935-1988), author of the Mr Men books; the Irish-born Eliza Lynch (1835-1886), who became the first lady of Paraguay; Sam Maguire, Gaelic footballer, after whom the sport’s principal trophy is named; Katherine Paston (1578-1629), letter write and estate manager, and Alec Reeves (1902-1971), whose invention of ‘pulse code modulation’ made possible the digital revolution.
October also sees the publication of 30 ‘reference group’ articles — a new development for the online edition. These provide concise essays on defined historical groups, highlighting connections between men and women who were members of well-known associations in British history. October’s groups range from the enforcers of Magna Carta to the Kit-Cat Club and the Keep Left group. More groups will be published in May 2006.
Finally, October’s update adds 51 new reference lists and 8 feature essays, located in the ‘Theme’ area of the online edition. New lists provide full coverage of the leaders of British territories overseas, while features include essays to mark Trafalgar and the Gunpowder Plot.
4. The finest scholarship on the greatest people
A number of the leading biographers and scholars who contributed to the dictionary reflected recently on writing the lives of well-known – and not so well-known – men and women.
Feature essay: Household names
Tony Corley looks at the entrepreneurs behind some of Britain's, and the world's, best-known brands.
New features in October and November will mark the anniversaries of Trafalgar and the Gunpowder Plot www.oxforddnb.com Subscribers can read these and many other feature essays in the Themes area of the online edition.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a research project of the University of Oxford, funded by the British Academy (1992–2004) and Oxford University Press
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Mary Jane Seacole (1805-1881), by Count Victor Gleichen, 1871; Institute of Jamaica; photograph National Portrait Gallery, London
Douglas Noël Adams (1952-2001), by Brian Griffin, 1986; © Brian Griffin; collection National Portrait Gallery, London
Sarah Goodin Barrett Moulton (1783-1795), by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1794; Courtesy of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California
Caesar (100-44 BC), head; © Copyright The British Museum
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), self-portrait, c.1780 Picture credit © Royal Academy of Arts, London
Charles Stewart Rolls (1877-1910), by unknown photographer, c.1905 Getty Images – Hulton Archive
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