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Sir John Alexander Hammerton (27 February 1871, in Alexandria, Scotland – 12 May 1949, in London) is described by the Dictionary of National Biography as "the most successful creator of large-scale works of reference that Britain has known".
Collaboration with Arthur Mee
Hammerton's first posts in journalism included a period in Nottingham, where he first met his lifelong collaborator and friend, Arthur Mee. In 1905, Hammerton joined Alfred Harmsworth's Amalgamated Press. He and Mee produced the Harmsworth Self-Educator.
Work on encyclopedias
Hammerton contributed to the first edition of Mee's Children's Encyclopædia, which was a fortnightly series from 1908 till 1910 before being published in eight large volumes. Hammerton's contribution consisted of compiling articles on 'Famous Books' and 'Poetry'.
Hammerton's greatest achievement was Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopædia. It was published first as a fortnightly series from 1920 to 1922. The Encyclopaedia sold 12 million copies throughout the English-speaking world. Some of the content was reformatted as articles in a later six volume self improvement series by Hammerton entitled Practical Knowledge for All.
Other works
In the Second World War, Hammerton edited "The Second Great War - A Standard History" (with Maj.-Gen. Sir Charles Gwynn acting a Military Editor). It was originally published in 104 parts, first fortnightly and then monthly for over five years, reverting to fortnightly in the last year of production. The collected editions were published in 9 volumes in 1947.
Hammerton later edited a biography of J. M. Barrie and studies of Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson. He also wrote Other Things than War: Musings and Memories (1943), and an autobiography, Books and Myself (1944). He edited Punch Library of Humour, a book series of volumes of selected Punch Magazine sketches, described as "cream of our national humour, contributed by the masters of the comic draughtsmanship and leading wits of the age to 'Punch'".
