author

Barkham Burroughs

d. 1952

Best known for a wonderfully wide-ranging Victorian reference book, this little-known compiler gathered practical tips, curiosities, and everyday advice into one busy volume. Even with so little surviving biographical detail, the sheer variety of the work gives a vivid sense of the world it was made for.

1 Audiobook

Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889

Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889

by Barkham Burroughs

About the author

Barkham Burroughs is a largely obscure author remembered today for Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889. Modern library and ebook records consistently connect the name with that single reference work, and Project Gutenberg lists the author as Burroughs, Barkham, with a death year of 1952.

The book itself is a classic late-19th-century miscellany: part handbook, part self-improvement guide, part household reference. It brings together advice, recipes, practical knowledge, and general-interest facts for everyday readers, which helps explain why it still attracts curious modern audiences through reprint and public-domain editions.

Because verified biographical information about Burroughs is very scarce online, it is safest to view the author as a compiler of useful knowledge rather than a well-documented literary figure. In that sense, the work's appeal is the story: a snapshot of what people once wanted to know, keep at hand, and pass along.