Dictionary of National Biography Calls Sir John Alexander Hammerton "the most successful creator of large-scale works of reference that Britain has known" (he was born on February 27, 1871, in Alexandria, Scotland and died on May 12, 1949, in London). Hammerton first job as a journalist was in Nottingham, where he met Arthur Mee, who would become his lifelong partner and friend. He joined Alfred Harmsworth's Amalgamated Press in 1905. The Harmsworth Self-Educator was made by him and Mee. Hammerton helped with the first version of Mee's Children's Encyclopaedia. It came out every two weeks from 1908 to 1910 and was later collected in eight big books. Hammerton contributed by putting together pieces about "Poetry" and "Famous Books." Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia was Hammerton's most important work. It was first released every two weeks from 1920 to 1922. Twelve million books of the Encyclopedia were sold all over the English-speaking world. Other parts of the text were changed and published as articles in Hammerton's later six-volume self-help series called Practical Knowledge for All.
