Meet a famous duo from America’s publishing industry

Wittenberg University was established in 1845 in Springfield, Ohio, for the purpose of training Lutheran church ministers.

Listed among Wittenberg’s “most famous alumni” are a pair of theological students from the 1860s – Isaac Kaufmann Funk and Adam Willis Wagnalls. 

And you can look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls. 

Isaac Funk was born in 1839 in the small village of Clifton, Ohio, near Dayton. Adam Wagnalls was born in 1843 in Lithopolis, Ohio, close to Columbus.

 

Isaac Funk (above) and Adam Wagnalls (below)

After completing their studies at Wittenberg, each was ordained as a Lutheran pastor and began service to the church. 

In 1876, Funk departed the ministry to establish I.K. Funk & Company in New York City to publish religious publications. He recruited Wagnalls in 1877 to join him in this new venture. Funk worked on the creative side, while Wagnalls handled the financial aspects of the business. 

The name of the company was changed to Funk & Wagnalls Company in 1890. Literary critics agree that Funk & Wagnalls’ most important achievement was its Standard Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1893. 

As the lexicographer, Funk worked with a team of more than 740 contributors. His aim was to provide essential information thoroughly and simply at the same time. The Funk & Wagnalls new dictionary gave readers the most current definition first and the oldest definition last, rather than the other way around, as all earlier dictionaries had been formatted. 

Eventually, in 1912, Funk & Wagnalls produced its iconic 25-volume Standard Encyclopedia. After Funk died (also in 1912), Wagnalls piloted the company until his death in 1924.

 

But there would be more Funks to factor into the company history. Isaac’s son, Wilfred John Funk, served as president of Funk & Wagnalls from 1925-40. He and his cousin, Charles Earle Funk, both inherited the lexicography gene. They specialized in publishing reference books.

 

The rights to publish the Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias were obtained by the Standard Reference Work Publishing Co., which began to sell the encyclopedia through “supermarket continuity promotions” in 1953. 

Sources reported that Standard enjoyed considerable success with this marketing technique – encouraging consumers “to include the latest volume of the encyclopedia on their shopping lists.” 

Jeff Poole of the Orange County (Va.) Review recently found a reference to a newspaper advertisement from 1971 in which the local A&P store promoted the availability of Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias. It read: 

“Unlike other good encyclopedias, which are sold through salesmen, the Funk & Wagnalls is available only through supermarkets. That way, you don’t have to pay for the cost of somebody to sell it to you, which means that to own a good encyclopedia, you no longer have to be rich.” 

Dr. Terry Stawar, a retired psychologist in Jeffersonville, Ind., is a frequent contributor to newsandtribune.com. In a recent post, he commented about growing up in a home with an incomplete set of Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias.

 

“My mother would occasionally purchase them at the A&P grocery store,” he said. “I was careful never to choose a topic for a school report” that was in one of the missing volumes that “she had neglected to buy.” 

“Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls” became a recurring line on the hit comedy television show, “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In,” which aired from 1968-73 on NBC. Dan Rowan regularly used the phrase as a punch line.