Global Tumult Gives Publishers A New Word Order

January 07, 1993|By Christine Hawes.

Living on this planet is confusing enough. Trying to explain what seems to be a never-ending game of worldwide musical chairs is next to impossible.

No one knows that better than the editors of Chicago-based World Book Encyclopedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica, who have just completed heavily revised versions of their encyclopedia collections.

World Book's 1993 editions have already been released, and Encyclopaedia Britannica will release its revised collection at the end of February.

After four years of worldwide conflict that have kept researchers for both World Book and Encyclopaedia Britannica hustling, this year's editions will be the first to include all of the past few years' political shuffles. And then some.

World Book, for instance, has a new entry for controversial film director Spike Lee and TV mogul Ted Turner. Madonna, however, was snubbed by both.

World Book revised 3,100 articles and added or changed 250 maps, said editorial director Dick Harmet. Encyclopaedia Britannica altered 1,330 articles, added or changed more than 200 maps and provided 355 new photographs, said editor-in-chief Robert McHenry.

The books are undergoing the most profound revisions in decades, editors say.

The whirlwind of change for the world, and the encyclopedias, began in 1989 with the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It picked up steam a year later with the reunification of Germany, and it reached a climax when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, creating at least a dozen new republics and unleashing forces that continue to reshape the globe.

Now, the compilers of the nation's two best-known storehouses of information are trying to keep up with the latest shakeup: the Bosnian War and resulting division of Yugoslavia.

Still, the rate of change is not nearly as hectic this year, and the editors are welcoming the opportunity to take at least a short breath.

"It's been extra bad timing for us," McHenry said. "The Berlin Wall was breached in November, Germany reunified in October and the Soviet Union collapsed in December-all at the end of the year."

Since their deadlines are in the fall, those events forced publishers to stop the presses and make revisions.

"If this keeps happening for two or three more years, we're going to start suspecting a conspiracy out there," McHenry said. "The last four years have brought profound changes in the structure of the world, and most of them have been completely unanticipated."

The mapmakers at Rand McNally in Skokie are even more frazzled by the world changes, said chief cartographer Dr. Michael W. Dobson. Not only are they trying to keep up with the formation of new countries; they're also responsible for tracking the name changes of every town, street or park.

"There's been almost a wholesale de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union," he said. "The Lenin Plaza, the Marxist Plaza, everything like that is gone. For people making foreign street guides, it's driving us crazy.

"And due to the instability and turmoil over there, nobody is really paying attention to officially sanctioning name changes. It used to be that you knew exactly where to call for the official name. The question now becomes, who do you call?"

While Rand McNally's biggest challenge has been overseas political struggles, World Book editors decided this year to highlight a local political struggle: the election of Carol Moseley Braun as the nation's first female black senator.

Only a few other politicians-including Richard J. Daley, Harold Washington, and every president-can claim the distinction World Book bestowed upon Braun, who was sworn in Tuesday as senator.

"She was a major national political figure about which there was a lot of interest," said Harmet, who will be retiring this month as editorial director of World Book after 25 years with the company. "When we add a biography, we want to make sure someone has lasting significance. By being a `first,' she achieved that."

Harmet had a more difficult time explaining the inclusion of Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight, whose Hoosiers made it to the Final Four of the 1992 NCAA tournament.

"We're interested in providing coverage across the board in all areas of endeavor," he said. "And year-in, year-out, Bobby Knight is in the public eye."
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