Encyclopedia Britannica halts print publication after 244 years | Books | guardian.co.uk

Encyclopedia Britannica halts print publication after 244 years | Books | guardian.co.uk:


Seven million sets later, Encyclopedia Britannica will no longer publish volumes in print. Photograph: Robert Mullan / Alamy/Alamy

ts legacy winds back through centuries and across continents, past the birth of America to the waning days of the Enlightenment. It is a record of humanity's achievements in war and peace, art and science, exploration and discovery. It has been taken to represent the sum of all human knowledge.

And now it's going out of print.

The Encyclopedia Britannica has announced that after 244 years, dozens of editions and more than 7m sets sold, no new editions will be put to paper. The 32 volumes of the 2010 installment, it turns out, were the last. Future editions will live exclusively online.