Blanc
Blanc names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Blanc Mont, the highest and in many respects the most remarkable mountain in Europe
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Mont, the highest and in many respects the most remarkable mountain in Europe. Its chief summit is 15,781 feet above the sea. Geographically Mont Blanc is a part of Switzerland, but on the political map, the greater part of the mountain, including its chief summit, is in France. It was ascended in 1786 by Jacques Balmat, whose monument stands in the village of Chamounix. A scientific exploration under the celebrated Saussure ascended in 1787 and took many observations. At the present time the business of making ascents is so thoroughly systematized by the guides of Chamounix that the trip may be made without serious danger. A rude inn, or sort of camping place and depot of provisions, has been established near the summit. The first day is spent in reaching this chalet; the second in completing the ascent and viewing the surrounding country if the air be clear. The party returns to camp at night and to Chamounix on the third day. The entire cost of the trip, including the charges for guides and entertainment at the inn, is about $75. In trips of this sort, one guide goes ahead, another brings up the rear. They carry the ends of a long rope, to which the tourists are required to fasten themselves as a precaution lest they slip from the footpath into the snowy chasms along which it is necessary for the party to thread its way. A rack and pinion railroad was begun in 1906. See Alps ; Switzerland ; Chamounix Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains; They crowned him long ago On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, With a diadem of snow. --Byron, Manfred.
Blanc JEAN JOSEPH LOUIS, a French socialist and historian
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JEAN JOSEPH LOUIS, a French socialist and historian, was born in Madrid, where his father was Inspector-General of Finance under King Joseph, Oct. 29, 1811. After finishing his school education he went to study in Paris. In 1839 he founded the "Revue du Progrès," in which he first brought out his chief work on socialism, the "Organization of Industry." The book denounces the I cinciple of competitive industry and proposes the establishment of social workshops, composed of workmen of good character, and subsidized by the State. In 1841-1844, Blanc published a historical work, entitled "History of Ten Years (1830-1840)," which produced a deadly effect on the Orleans dynasty. This was followed by the first volume of a "History of the French Revolution." On the breaking out of the Revolution of February, 1848, Blanc was appointed a member of the Provisional government, at the head of the great commission for discussing the problem of labor. At the same time, Marie, Minister of Public Works, began to establish the so-called national workshops, which, however, were in no sense an attempt to carry out the views of Blanc. Blanc was accused, without reason, of a share in the disturbances of the summer of 1848, and escaped to London, where he spent many years. On the fall of the empire, Blanc returned to France, and was elected to the National Assembly in 1871. After 1876 he was member of the Chamber of Deputies. In both these bodies he voted and acted with the Extreme Left. He died at Cannes, Dec. 6, 1882.
Blanc MARIE THÉRÈSE (THERESE BENTZON)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MARIE THÉRÈSE (THERESE BENTZON), a French novelist and littérateur, born at Seine-Port, Sept. 21, 1840. She has been for many years on the editorial staff of the "Revue des Deux Mondes," to which she has contributed notable translations and reviews of many American, English, and German authors. Her literary essays on these contemporaneous writers were collected in "Foreign Literature and Customs" (1882) and "Recent American Novelists" (1885). Her first work to attract attention was "A Divorce" (1871). Two other novels, "A Remorse" (1879), and "Tony" (1889), were crowned by the French Academy. jects from the Sahara in a westerly di- Other stories are "Georgette" and "Jacqueline" (1893). The fruit of her first visit to the United States was "Condition of Woman in the United States" (1895); "Au Dessus de l'Abime" (1905). She died in 1907.
Blanc PAUL JOSEPH, a French genre painter
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
PAUL JOSEPH, a French genre painter; studied under Bin and Cabanel. He won the Grand Prize of Rome in 1867; the first class medal of the Paris Salon in 1872; the decoration of the Legion of Honor in 1878; and the first class medal in the Paris Exposition of 1889. One of his best known works is a decorative composition depicting events in the life of Clovis. He died July 5, 1904.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's placed Mont Blanc "geographically a part of Switzerland" in 1910; the massif in fact straddles the French-Italian border, and ownership of the summit itself is still argued over by Paris and Rome, with Switzerland nowhere near it. The rack railway "begun in 1906" never reached the top: the Tramway du Mont-Blanc still halts at the Nid d'Aigle, some 8,000 feet below the summit, and the $75 three-day outing has become a guided climb costing thousands of euros, with hut places rationed by advance booking. Modern historians also give the 1786 first ascent to Michel-Gabriel Paccard as well as to Jacques Balmat, the guide whose statue Aiton's mentions at Chamonix. Of the three people, only Louis Blanc is much read now, chiefly for the "right to work" and the state-subsidised social workshops the entry describes; Thérèse Bentzon and the painter Paul Joseph Blanc have largely dropped from view.
Written for this edition, 2026.