This illustrated encyclopaedia, running into eight volumes, attempts to enquire into the astonishing realities and the mysterious ways of life of the animal kingdom-mammals, reptiles, birds, fishes and insects. The text is enriched with a representative and varied collection of photographic documents covering the whole range of enimated nature including 33 coloured photographs. Each chapter of this work is written either by one of the reading specialists on the subject or-where expert knowledge is less needed than vividness of descriptive style-by a popular author.
Sir John Alexander Hammerton (1871-1949) was an English statesman and author, best-known for his editorship of popular encyclopaedias published in the first half of the 20th century, such as the 10-volume New Book of Knowledge. From 1914 to 1919, Hammerton was joint editor with HW Wilson of the periodical The Great War: The Standard History of the All-Europe Conflict, published by the Amalgamated Press. It was lavishly illustrated with photographs and with realistic drawings which were sometimes hardly distinguishable from photographs. He was also a contemporary and friend of Arthur Mee, about whom he wrote a biography.