The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Rines, George Edwin

RINES, George Edwin, American editor: b. Maitland, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada, 28 Dec. 1860. Coming to the United States when 11 years old, his early education was obtained in the public schools of Brooklyn, N. Y. For several years after graduation from the high school there he was engaged in mercantile life, but in 1887 resumed his studies at Colgate University, Hamilton, N. Y. In 1890 he entered the full Hebrew and Greek course in theology and was graduated from the Hamilton Theological Seminary in 1893. He was for two years pastor at Binghamton, N. Y., afterward accepting a call to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of Ridgewood, N. J., where he remained for three years. He resigned from the ministry in 1899 to devote himself to literary work, and has been a frequent contributor to religious and other periodicals. In 1903 he was appointed managing editor of the ‘Encyclopedia Americana,’ to which he contributed many articles. Subsequently Mr. Rines was managing editor of the ‘United Editors’ Encyclopedia, and in 1910-11 was general editor of ‘The Foundation Library for Young People.’ In 1913-15 Mr. Rines was managing editor of ‘The German Classics,’ and after 1916 was editor-in-chief of the ‘Encyclopedia Americana’ (2d ed.). This second edition he planned with consummate care, adding many features hitherto foreign to works of reference. His particular care was to have an adequate treatment of every phase of American life and American government and informative articles describing the motives and actions of America in the Great War and the mighty forces loosed by her participation in that conflict.