Tales from a New Encyclopedia, with Tom Flynn (4/4/08)
Closing event in CFI's first anniversary celebration series
SUMMARY
Tom Flynn, editor of FREE INQUIRY and longtime freethought
activist, talks about the challenges he faced -- and some of the
surprising things he learned -- during his five years editing THE NEW
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UNBELIEF. This all-new, just-under-900-page tome has
been hailed as the new standard reference in its field. It covers in
unprecedented detail the freethought, atheist, and humanist traditions
across the world, country by country. Flynn invited, coordinated, and
cajoled more than 150 contributors who wrote well over 500 separate
entries. The process wasn't always straightforward. In particular,
bringing together the entries covering freethought in Canada involved
marshaling new scholarship from some surprising sources. Along the way,
researchers unearthed a once-vibrant, long-forgotten freethought
tradition in Toronto with unexpected links to some of the biggest names
in Golden Age freethought. Flynn will profile some of these new
discoveries, and share stories about his "every editor's nightmare"
experiences. What do you do when a prolific contributor dies before
correcting his proofs? How do you motivate an author who's agreed to
write more than a dozen entries,
but never starts writing? Flynn will reveal all with his trademark good humor.
BIOGRAPHY
A frequent speaker all across southern Ontario, Tom Flynn is editor of
FREE INQUIRY, director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum,
and a founding co-editor of the newsletter SECULAR HUMANIST BULLETIN.
He edited THE NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UNBELIEF, published by Prometheus
Books late in 2007. His previous books include the irreverent science
fiction novels GALACTIC RAPTURE and NOTHING SACRED and the rollicking
polemic THE TROUBLE WITH CHRISTMAS, all published by Prometheus.
Part 1:
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR_IKXat9Sc&feature=user
For pictures of the event, please click on the photo below:
