The Biographical Dictionary includes brief biographical entries for over 24,000 individuals throughout history, from ancient times to the present. Compiled by Eric Tentarelli, a student at Cornell University, the Dictionary has been updated continuously since 1992. Biographical data has been taken from hundreds of sources over the years, according to the author. A bibliography of works which were used for at least a hundred entries was e‐mailed to this reviewer upon request; the list contains well‐known reference books ranging from Contemporary Authors and Who’s Who in America to more subject‐specific sources such as J.N.D. Kelly’s The Oxford Dictionary of Popes (Oxford University Press, 1986).
The layout of the site is fairly simple but appropriate to its content, with few graphics except a few figures on the main page. A menu bar to the left of most pages provides easy access to other parts of the Dictionary. While banner advertisements do appear on the main search page, their presence isn’t distracting.
The Dictionary’s search engine provides access to the data. Searches can be performed by name, keyword, or date. As the directions suggest, simple searches provide the best results. However, users should consult the help screens prior to composing searches. Name searches may be done using either a person’s surname or full name. For example, typing Clinton will find all individuals with this last name. Searching on Elizabeth, however, locates royal figures bearing this name but not women such as Elizabeth Taylor or Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Other search options include Date, providing ways to find birth dates, death dates, centuries, and years B.C.; and Keyword, which includes professions, place names, and any other terms listed in a person’s entry. Advanced searches, using Boolean terms and truncation, may be done via a separate page. The help files are a strong point of the Biographical Dictionary, as the examples are well‐detailed and provide information not only on how to conduct searches but also on the format used when the author first creates an entry.
Since the biographical data is taken from authoritative sources, accuracy is high. However, as the author states, this site doesn’t include the depth of information found in other sources. Most entries are two to three lines long and include names, nicknames (if any), nationalities, and claims to fame, including selected works created by the person, if applicable. In addition, updates are uploaded at least once a week, making the entries more up‐to‐date than print dictionaries or most other online sources of this type. The listing for country singer Tammy Wynette, for example, was updated within a week of her death in 1998. However, her entry may lead readers to believe she was married only once instead of five times.
The Master Biographer Challenge quiz allows you to test your knowledge of historical figures and events. For each question, there are four answers to choose from, each of which gains you ten points. The questions themselves, dealing with people from all periods of history, are fairly challenging. An image of a climber ascending a mountain marks your progress; and when you answer ten questions successfully, you are presented with a photograph of the summit (with no link back to the main page). Though not the main focus of this site, this quiz is entertaining and well‐presented; however, it would have been helpful if the correct answers were given. In addition, anyone taking the Challenge more than once may run into questions seen in previous attempts.
Other online sources of biographical information include A&E’s Biography site (http://www.biography.com), containing over 20,000 entries. Data here comes from the AND Reference Database or The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia (Cambridge University Press, 1994), and covers topics in more depth than the Biographical Dictionary. Entries can range from a few sentences to multiple paragraphs and tend to be more scholarly oriented. The database is searchable, but only by name. In addition, cross‐references are included occasionally. A nice meta‐index to biographical sources on the Internet is located in the Internet Public Library’s Reference Collection (http://www. ipl.org/ref/RR/static/ ref1000.html) which includes many subject‐specific sources.
There are several places where the Biographical Dictionary could be improved. First, the compiler’s name and affiliation is not provided anywhere; and the significance of the domain s9.com is unknown. Though these questions were answered in an e‐mail message to the author, this information should be more directly available. (As it turns out, the domain name was chosen by the author simply for its brevity.) It would be helpful if the bibliography of sources consulted was provided as well. In addition, though the help files are well‐written, searching by year is not always intuitive. For example, one must precede years using only two digits with an initial zero. These complaints aside, however, the Biographical Dictionary is a useful ready reference tool. While anyone searching for scholarly or lengthy biographical information will want to continue their searches elsewhere, this site is recommended for anyone desiring to know quick facts about a well‐known current or historical figure.
