Excerpt from Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. 1: Abbe-Barrymore A tentative list of names was first compiled from earlier works of reference, but it was deficient in the particulars just noted. A classification was then devised on the basis of occupations, trades, and professions, as likely under American conditions to bring to, light significant figures in specialized fields Of human endeavor. For each of these groups some authority was asked to supply a tentative list. Every such list was submitted to other specialists, or to groups of specialists, who dropped some names, added others, and attempted to make a rating of all. To avoid the possibility of names slipping through the meshes of this drag-net, necrologies of all sorts were carefully searched; and the pro posed list of names in the first volume was printed and circulated three months before the volume was sent to the printers, in order to discover serious omissions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.