Dictionary of National Biography

Possibly the most important book this century...

Access the DNB online

You can now access the DNB via the internet. Visit the site at: www.oxforddnb.com.

Weighing in at 20 stone (127 kilograms) the new Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) is now available in the Kensington Central Library.

After 12 years in the making, with 10,000 contributors, containing 55,000 biographies and costing the Oxford University Press £25 million to compile, it is a biographic 'tour de force'.

The DNB lists remarkable people in any walk of life who were connected with the British Isles, excluding living people. It includes not just the great and good, but people who have left a mark for any reason, good, bad, or bizarre.

The sixty volumes cover all types of Great Britons from the worthies to the worthless that go to make up the fabric of British history. Entries range from Pytheas, an explorer from the fourth Century BC to Sir Isaac Hai (Jack) Jacob, a leading barrister who died on 26 December 2000.

Originally published over a century ago the new DNB has been completely revamped for the 21st Century. A further 16,000 new biographies have been added including:

women, who were poorly represented in the original DNB
people in business and the world of labour
Britons who lived in Europe and played a significant part in the lives of their new countries (Scottish engineers who did much to build the Scandinavian economies; likewise the Welsh in Russia)
Americans from first settlement to independence (neither Washington nor Franklin, for example, was included in the original DNB)

For more information come in and have a look for yourself, or visit the National Dictionary of Biography website.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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