Author: World Almanac Books

Publisher: World Almanac

Pub. in: November, 2006

ISBN: 0886879957

Pages: 1008

Measurements: 7.9 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches

Origin of product: USA

Order code: BA00824

Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0886879952

The #1 New York Times Bestseller.

There are many imitators on the market, some of them quite good, but this almanac has set the standard for more than a century. The New York World newspaper began publishing an almanac in 1868, "a 120-page volume with 12 pages of advertising." The newspaper suspended the almanac's publication in 1876, but publisher Joseph Pulitzer revived it in 1886 as a "compendium of universal knowledge." The almanac has been published annually since, outliving the newspaper whose name it still bears.

The World Almanac contains much useful information that belongs in any serious basic-reference set. For the world, the almanac presents basic statistics about each nation, and about the world's major religions; and summarizes the world's history, with more detailed histories of the United States and of the preceding year. For the United States, the almanac reprints the nation's organic documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; lists every community with a population over 5000, with its ZIP code and area code; lists every county (or parish or division) and county seat; contains a directory of the entire Federal government, including Congress and all congressional committees, every executive department, and every court and judge; presents basic statistics about each state and major city, and a short biography of each president; and much more. The almanac also contains bountiful information about education, science, sports, and many other topics. No other single volume offers such a wealth of information on such a variety of subjects.

The 2007 edition does suffer from the same issue that has affected the last several editions: it went to print in mid-October, before the November election and the World Series. Once upon a time, the almanac went to print in November, and included the preceding year's election returns and World Series results. But the preceding year's news has been ending earlier and earlier in recent editions: in the 1999 edition the last entry was 3 November 1998, in the 2004 edition it was 16 October 2003, and in the 2007 edition it is 16 October 2006. As a result, the directory of Congress and of state governments will be out of date during the first week of 2007. Omitting the election returns may have gotten the almanac onto the newsstand a week or two sooner, but the tradeoff hardly seems worth it. The almanac itself, however, is well worth the price.
- From quoting Brian Melendez

Target readers: General readers