The Efficient, Inventive (Often Annoying) Melvil Dewey

August 10, 2020
O’Neill’s breezy biography caroms through Melvil Dewey’s quirks of efficiency—simplifying the spelling of his name, lecturing at “180 words per minute”—and achievements—advocating for public libraries, establishing the Dewey Decimal System, founding a school for librarians at Columbia, and educating women against the trustees’ will, among other things. But the presentation of the efficiency-minded Dewey as an “appealing or annoying” person buries key information: an author’s note reveals that his racism, anti-Semitism, and harassment of women were significant enough to impact his career in the early 1900s, and relegating this to a footnote sours the charm of O’Neill’s narration. Fotheringham’s crisp pictures, however, capture Dewey’s whirlwind energy, showing him on the move and transformed into a speeding train. Back matter includes a timeline, a breakdown of the Dewey Decimal System, and information on the figure’s other reforms. Ages 7–10.