The Children's Encyclopædia

The Children's Encyclopædia was an encyclopaedia originated by Arthur Mee, and published by the Educational Book Company, a subsidiary of Northcliffe's Amalgamated Press, London.

The work could be used as a conventional reference library, as the last volume had an alphabetical index, or each section could be read from start to finish.

This was presented in a moderate and liberal way in many areas: other "races", although inferior according to the text, were to be treated with respect, and imperialism was justified only if it improved the lot of its subjects.

At a time when the relation between science and religion was controversial, the encyclopaedia supported evolution and it did not see any contradiction between religious teachings and Darwin's views.

From September 1910, the magazine included a supplement of news entitled The Little Paper, the forerunner of Arthur Mee's Children's Newspaper, launched in 1919.

The new 59-part, 7,412-page, 10-volume series debuted in October 1922 as The Children's Encyclopedia, the digraph having been dropped, and went through 14 editions by 1946 under the imprint of The Educational Book Co. Translations appeared in France, Italy, Spain, Brazil and China.

[1] While the encyclopaedia itself did not carry any copyright or publishing dates, clues are present in the title used and the colour and design on the cover as to the approximate age of a complete collection.

[6] In May 1973 riots occurred in Jammu and Kashmir, India, in an area where the Jamaat-e-Islami was gaining influence, sparked by the discovery that an illustration contained in The Book of Knowledge, which had been stored in a local library for decades, portrayed the Archangel Gabriel dictating portions of the Quran to Muhammad.