Bidspirit auction | 1944. McDannald, A. H. (Ed.).

1944. McDannald, A. H. (Ed.). The New Modern Encyclopedia. Wm. H. Wise & Co., Inc. - This one-volume hardcover reference work is titled The New Modern Encyclopedia: A Library of World Knowledge. The title page identifies it as a complete revision with comprehensive World War II references, based on an edition edited by A. H. McDannald, B.L., Editor-in-Chief of Encyclopedia Americana. It was published in New York by Wm. H. Wise & Co., Inc. in 1944. The volume is bound in brown textured oilcloth with blind-stamped horizontal ridges and a debossed central panel on the front board featuring a profile of Minerva, Goddess of Wisdom. Below the central illustration, the name KARDIE NORMAN is stamped in gold-toned lettering. The interior features a frontispiece lithograph of Aristotle by S. J. Woolf and is populated throughout with black-and-white line illustrations accompanying the text entries. The text is arranged in a two-column format on age-toned paper. The book is in poor condition with significant structural damage. The spine is heavily frayed and partially detached, exposing the internal cotton batting and binding layers (photo 4, 12). The front hinge is starting to separate from the text block (photo 6). The exterior covers show extensive wear, particularly at the corners and edges which are frayed and bumped (photo 1, 3). The interior pages exhibit age-toning and scattered minor foxing (photo 6, 8). There is a loose fragment of the binding material present (photo 3).