author
Barkham Burroughs
d. 1952
A wonderfully odd compiler of everyday knowledge, remembered for a late-19th-century miscellany packed with household advice, remedies, recipes, and curious facts. The book offers a lively glimpse into what practical reference reading looked like for ordinary readers of its time.
1 Audiobook
Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889
by Barkham Burroughs
About the author
Very little biographical information about this author could be confirmed, which is part of the mystery. Reliable catalog and reference records identify Barkham Burroughs as the creator of Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889, and note that he died in 1952.
That encyclopaedia is what keeps the name alive. First published in 1889, it gathers a huge range of practical material for daily life, from recipes and home remedies to etiquette, debate topics, and bits of general knowledge. Today it reads both as a reference book and as a time capsule of popular advice and curiosity from the late nineteenth century.
Some colorful claims about Burroughs appear in later retellings, but they are not consistently well supported, so it is safer to remember him chiefly through the work itself. For modern listeners and readers, the appeal lies in the book's mix of usefulness, eccentricity, and old-fashioned confidence that almost any question could be answered in print.