Remembering the Family Encyclopedia

A nostalgic look at a defunct part of American cultural life.

I was recently cleaning out my Grandma’s house, and I came upon a very old and somewhat battered set of World Book encyclopedias. I’d known they were there — they were a staple of my Grandma’s house for as long as I could remember — but seeing them somehow brought back all of the many times that I’d seen her consult them whenever she wanted to know more about something that had been mentioned in the news or something that she’d seen on a television show.

They were located in what she called her “good” living room. It was a smallish room, with a hifi in one corner, a set of built-in bookshelves, a piano, a couch and chair, and delightfully ugly white shag carpet. I suspect that it was her little sanctum in her rambling country farmhouse, a small touch of class in an otherwise rustic environment. The encyclopedias occupied pride of place on that built-in bookshelf, with two horse-head shaped bookends on either side. For me, they were always a key part of my visits to see her. For her, I think, they were her ticket to a wide world that she would probably never see for herself, a place of knowledge and wonder and delight.

As I flipped through those old books, I found myself carried back to my childhood, when I would also spend hours…