The Dictionary of National Biography: 1981 - 1985 (With an index covering the years 1901 - 1985 in one alphabetical series) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198652100 ISBN 13: 9780198652106

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1990

Synopsis

This volume, the first DNB twentieth-century supplement to span only five years, includes biographies of 380 distinguished men and women who died between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1985. As in previous volumes, the entrants form a distinguished roll-call of persons prominent in many fields. Most are British citizens, but a few subsequently took other nationalities, and several never became British citizens though they spent most of their lives in Britain. The lives of some eminent Commonwealth citizens, such as Indira Gandhi, are also recorded. Among those represented are spies Anthony Blunt and Donald Maclean; actors Richard Burton, Sir Ralph Richardson, and Dame Flora Robson; writer Robert Graves, novelist A.J. Cronin, and poets Philip Larkin and John Betjeman; historian Michael Wallace-Hadrill; conductor Sir Adrian Boult, composer Sir William Walton, and singer Billy Fury; and Sir Martin Ryle, the radio astronomer. Written by people who knew their subjects personally, this volume joins biographical fact with private knowledge and personal anecdote, resulting in a rich resource of interest to historians and general readers alike.

About this title

Review

"A glittering, and at times an imaginative, collection."--Weekend Financial Times

"A predictable delight....How often was the DNB mentioned by one of his castaways as the work, apart from the Bible or Shakespeare, to be taken to his desert island? It would probably be my choice."--The Times (London)

Praise for earlier volumes: "As usual, the quality of the writing is exceptional....This is a splendid work."--Library Journal

"This is the only volume of [DNB]--or for that matter of any work of reference--which I have ever tried to go straight through. It added up to a few days of the most enjoyable reading I have recently had....A surprisingly fair series of portraits, many of them entertaining as well."--Observer

"Written by a variety of hands, based variously on newspaper articles, memoirs, biographies, and often the contributior's personal knowledge of his or her subject, these deftly encapsulated life histories are not only authoritative, but also delightful to read: vivid, insightful, and occasionally irreverent."--The Christian Science Monitor

"The DNB is the most expansive, companionable, and entertaining 'authority' one can hope to meet, interested in everybody and eager to tell you all....One can hardly read any entry without learning something unexpected or unbelievable about people or history."--The American Scholar

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198652100
• ISBN 13: 9780198652106
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 532
• Editor: Lord Blake, Christine Nicholls