Eleventh Edition, 1911

“For descriptions of every American town that ever has been, is, or ever will be, and for full and complete biographies of every statesman since the time of George Washington and long before, the Encyclopedia would be hard to beat. Owing to our shortage of matches we have been driven to use it for purposes other than the purely literary ones though; and one genius having discovered that the paper, used for its pages had been impregnated with saltpetre, we can now thoroughly recommend it as a very efficient pipe-lighter.”

— Ernest Shackleton, South