Library of Entertaining Knowledge

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}

File:Portrait of a Kshatriya.jpg

The Library of Entertaining Knowledge was founded by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.{{cite book|author=Sylvanus Urban|title=The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review — Vol. 2.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PbwUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA266|year=1866|page=266}} The books appeared from 1829 to 1838, published in London by Charles Knight, and complemented the Society's Library of Useful Knowledge, which had not sold as well as hoped.{{cite ODNB|id=15716|first=Rosemary|last=Mitchell|title=Knight, Charles}}{{cite book|author=Royal A. Gettmann|title=A Victorian Publisher: A Study of the Bentley Papers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=42SO3djLc0sC&pg=PA13|date=10 June 2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-15320-1|pages=13–4}} The volumes were priced at 4s. 6d, more expensive than rival non-fiction series.{{cite book|author=Aileen Fyfe|title=Steam-Powered Knowledge: William Chambers and the Business of Publishing, 1820-1860|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAoGd7HfTB8C&pg=PA63|date=28 February 2012|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-27651-9|page=63}}

class='wikitable'

!Number

!Year

!Title

!Author
Comments

1{{cite book|author=Robert Bent|title=The London catalogue of books ... containing the books published in London ... since the year MDCCCXIV to MDCCCXXXIX|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f4kIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA131|year=1839|page=131}}

|1829 (31 March)

|The Menageries. Quadrupeds, Described and Drawn From Living Subjects

|James Rennie (anonymous)

|1829

|A Description and History of Vegetable Substances used in the Arts, and in Domestic Economy: Timber Trees: Fruits

|Robert Mudie (anonymous)

|1830

|The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties{{cite book|author=George Lillie Craik|author-link=George Lillie Craik|title=The pursuit of knowledge under difficulties [by G.L. Craik]. Continuation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RfgIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR5|year=1865|page=v}}

|George Lillie Craik (anonymous)

|1830

|The New Zealanders{{cite book|author=George Lillie Craik|title=The New Zealanders|url=https://archive.org/details/newzealanders02craigoog|year=1830|publisher=Charles Knight}}

|George Lillie Craik (anonymous)

24

|1830

|Insect Architecture{{cite book|author=Samuel Halkett|author-link=Samuel Halkett|title=Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fRfBroP_QZ4C&pg=PA159|year=1926|publisher=Ardent Media|pages=159–60|id=GGKEY:XNNP1DZ3NZG}}

|James Rennie (anonymous)

|1830

|Insect Transformations

|James Rennie (anonymous)

|1831

|Paris and Its Historical Scenes (2 Vols.)

|George Lillie Craik (anonymous)

|1831

|Insect Miscellanies

|James Rennie (anonymous)

|1831

|The Architecture of Birds{{cite book|title=The Westminster Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aYJFAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA195|year=1831|publisher=Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy|page=195}}

|James Rennie (anonymous)

35

|1831–2

|Pompeii (2 vols.)

|William Barnard Clarke (anonymous), later expanded{{cite book|author=Eric Moormann|title=Pompeii's Ashes: The Reception of the Cities Buried by Vesuvius in Literature, Music, and Drama|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0_NeCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA57|date=10 March 2015|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=978-1-61451-873-0|page=57 note 219}}{{cite book|author1=Shelley Hales|author2=Joanna Paul|title=Pompeii in the Public Imagination from Its Rediscovery to Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U3zhH_JgZXUC&pg=PA92|date=17 November 2011|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-956936-6|page=92}}

|1831–5

|Historical Parallels (2 vols.){{cite book|author=Samuel Halkett|author-link=Samuel Halkett|title=Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fRfBroP_QZ4C&pg=PA54|year=1926|publisher=Ardent Media|page=54|id=GGKEY:XNNP1DZ3NZG}}

|Arthur Thomas Malkin (anonymous)

|1832

|Vegetable Substances Used for The Food of Man

|

12

|1832–3

|Criminal Trials (2 vols.){{cite DNB|wstitle=Jardine, David|volume=29}}

|David Jardine (anonymous)

|1832-6

|The British Museum. Egyptian Antiquities (2 vols.)

|George Long (anonymous)

18, 19

|1833{{cite book|title=Library of Entertaining Knowledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gg0bAAAAYAAJ|year=1833|publisher=Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge}}

|The British Museum. Elgin and Phigaleian Marbles (2 vols.)s:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ellis, Sir Henry

|Sir Henry Ellis (anonymous)

|1833

|Vegetable Substances: Materials of Manufacture

|

|1833

|The Domestic Habits of Birds

|James Rennie (anonymous)

|1834

|History of British Costume

|James Planché (anonymous)

|1834-5

|The Hindoos (2 Vols.){{cite book|title=The Library of Entertaining Knowledge. The Hindoos|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bZeFNwAACAAJ|year=1835|publisher=C. Knight}}

|Revised by Friedrich August Rosen{{cite DNB|wstitle=Rosen, Friedrich August|volume=49}}

|1835

|The Faculties of Birds

|James Rennie (anonymous)

|1836

|The British Museum. The Townley Gallery (2 vols.)

|Sir Henry Ellis (anonymous)

|1836

|Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (2 vols.){{cite book|title=Library of Entertaining Knowledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AwbAAAAYAAJ|year=1836|publisher=Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge}}

|Edward William Lane{{cite book|author=Edward W. Lane|title=Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KvHIqzkXyUgC&pg=PA9|date=1 January 2010|publisher=Cosimo, Inc.|isbn=978-1-61640-504-5|page=9}}

|1836

|The Chinese. A General Description of the Empire of China and its Inhabitants (2 vols.)

|John Francis Davis

|1836

|The Backwoods of Canada: Being Letters from the Wife of an Emigrant Officer

|Catharine Parr Traill (anonymous)

|1837

|Secret Societies of the Middle Ages

|Thomas Keightley; published anonymously and against the author's wishes{{cite DNB|wstitle=Keightley, Thomas (1789-1872)|volume=30}}

|1838

|Distinguished Men of Modern Times (4 Vols.)

|Henry Malden (anonymous)

Notes