Character Building

Character Building

1986 5 May 27-28 Character Building (439) The dictionary of National Biography was first published in London just over one hundred years ago, in January 1985. When the idea to supply “full, accurate and concise biographies of all noteworthy inhabitants of the British Islands and colonies from the earliest period to the present time”, was first conceived by publisher George Smith (1824-1901) he was treading ground on which all who had gone before him had failed. The Biographical Britannica had taken five large volumes to reach the letter F, and had then expired. The Society for Diffusion of Useful Knowledge published seven half volumes, on people whose names begin with A, but never got round to the lives of people whose names begin with the rest of the alphabet. Another attempt by Rose reached C in six volumes, and then changed gear to do D to Z in another six volumes.

Smith chose as his editor Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), literary critic and father of the writer Virginia Woolf. The first thing that Stephen did was to dissuade Smith from his original idea of compiling a dictionary of Universal Biography. Stephen, in what Smith called his “knowledge and sound judgement”, realized that this was a project too ambitious for there to be any realistic hope of it reaching completion. Then, in 1883, Stephen published in the Athenaeum a list of names for the letter A, inviting scholars to propose further names and to offer themselves as contributors. This was followed by further lists, each containing some 1000 names, twice a year, year after year, and then with amazing regularity the volumes were published on quarter-day four times a year for fifteen and a half years. The dictionary was finally completed in 63 volumes.

But Leslie Stephen was not fated to see the completion of the work which he had so painstakingly started. It had taken every thing out of him. He suffered a severe nervous breakdown and it was the assistant editor Sidney Lee (1859-1926) who saw the work through. The effort that the DNB had taken out of Leslie Stephen is expressed in his own heart-rending words:

“That damned thing goes on like a diabolical piece of machinery, always gaping for more copy.”

(The Guardian, February 3, 1985)

Commemorating the centenary of the DNB The Guardian wrote that “it was one of those massive undertakings that only the Victorians could be megalomania: enough to conceive, and only the Victorians could have had the energy and industriousness to carry out.” In truth, any great undertaking requires energy and industriousness of this nature. If one is not ready to give one’s all, no worthwhile task can be achieved.