Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary

Newly revised and updated, Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary provides essential information about important people from throughout history and around the world. This comprehensive reference is one of the most extensive collections of biographies ever presented in a single volume--from Michelangelo to Richard Nixon, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao to Theidore Geisel.

Weighing in at a hefty 1,170 pages, this addictive reference volume supplies brief lives of more than 30,000 men and women--the famous, the not-so-famous, and the downright obscure. Coverage of the non-English speaking world is particularly comprehensive. And thanks to the helpful pronunciation guidelines, names like Domitius Ahenobarbus and Abu al-Faraj alIsbahani will soon roll trippingly from the reader's tongue.