Edmund
Edmund names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Edmund ST., King of the East Angles
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ST., King of the East Angles, began to reign in 855; was revered by his subjects for his justice and piety. In 870 his kingdom was invaded, and he himself slain, by the Danes. The Church made him a martyr, and a town (Bury St. Edmunds) grew up round the place of his sepulture. EDMUND I., King of England, an able and spirited prince; succeeded his brother Athelstan in 940. He conquered Cumbria, which he bestowed on Malcolm, ing of Scotland, on condition of doing homage for it to himself. He was slain at a banquet May 26, 946. EDMUND II., surnamed Ironside, King of England, was the eldest son of Ethelred II., and was born in 989. He was chosen king in 1016, Canute having been already elected king by another party. He won several victories over Canute, but was defeated at Assandum in Essex, and forced to surrender the midland and N. counties to Canute. He died after a reign of only seven months.
Edmund ST. all the world as one of the greatest inventors of the 19th century
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ST. all the world as one of the greatest inventors of the 19th century. Among his more important inventions may be named the phonograph, a telephone for long distance transmission, a system of duplex telegraphy (which he subsequently developed into quadruplex and sextuplex transmission), the carbon telephone transmitter, the microtasimeter, the aerophone, megaphone, the incandescent electric lamp, the kinetoscope, and a storage battery for street railway cars and automobiles. In 1913 by synchronizing the phonograph and kinetoscope he produced talking moving pictures; but the invention is still imperfect. In 1878 he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French Government, a commander of the Legion in 1889, and was the recipient of the insignia of a grand officer of the Crown of Italy bestowed the same year by King Humbert.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The bare facts Collier's gave in 1921 still stand: St Edmund killed by the Danes (now usually dated 869 rather than 870), Edmund I stabbed at a feast in 946 — at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire — and Edmund Ironside dying within months of the Battle of Assandun in 1016. What historians now treat with more caution is the tidy claim that Edmund I "bestowed" Cumbria on Malcolm of Scotland "on condition of doing homage": the homage detail comes from later chroniclers with an interest in English overlordship, and modern accounts describe the 945 campaign against Strathclyde without that feudal gloss. St Edmund himself has had a small revival, with periodic campaigns to restore him as patron saint of England in place of St George, the position he held until the later Middle Ages. One thing on this page is not Edmund at all: the second entry is a stray fragment of Collier's article on Thomas Edison, listing the phonograph and the incandescent lamp, and its promise that talking pictures were "still imperfect" was overtaken within a decade.
Written for this edition, 2026.