Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (1810–1897) was an English clergyman and compiler of reference books. The son of a Norwich schoolmaster, he took a first in law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, was ordained, and instead of a parish devoted himself to writing books that answered questions. A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar (1840) sold in the hundreds of thousands; the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1870) explained the allusions a reader of English might meet; and The Reader's Handbook (1880) did the same for the characters of literature. He worked from notes he had kept all his life and died at Edwinstowe in Nottinghamshire.