"Bil" (automobile), from Focus

Focus is an encyclopedia first published in Swedish in 5 volumes 1958–1960, later extended with additional volumes, republished in several editions, and translated to Danish, Norwegian, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge Swedish ( is a North Germanic language spoken by more than nine million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the Year 1958 ( MCMLVIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Danish ( d̥ænsɡ̊ is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Norwegian ( norsk) is a North Germanic Language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. Based on inspiration from the richly illustrated 1947 edition of the American World Book Encyclopedia, the plan for Focus as conceived by Sven Lidman (born 1921) was based on two principles:

1. a set of highly instructional and internationally reusable illustrations should be produced first, to which text could be written later in various languages, and
2. the basic encyclopedia should be compact (only 3 or 4 volumes) to which specialized add-on volumes from a series (Sports in Focus, This year in Focus, etc. Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The World Book Encyclopedia is according to its publisher in the United States, "the number-one selling print encyclopedia in the world Sven Lidman, lexicographer son of the writer Sven Lidman, born 1921 living in Stockholm, main editor or managing director of several Swedish Encyclopedias Year 1921 ( MCMXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar of the Gregorian calendar ) could be combined ("Kombinationslexikon statt Konversationslexikon"), making it easier to cover different market segments.

Sven Lidman left his previous employer in 1955 and took this new idea to the Swedish publishing house Almqvist & Wiksell, but only after also getting a letter of intent from German publisher Bertelsmann was he able to get his employer started. Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Bertelsmann AG is a transnational media corporation founded in 1835 based in Gütersloh, Germany. Being the first richly illustrated encyclopedia in Sweden (and several other countries), the sales were a given success. "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. The idea of only reusing the illustrations failed, as most contracting publishers chose to translate most of the text as well. A fifth volume containing an index, thesaurus and cross-reference was added to the basic encyclopedia, not least because this increased the total "number of entries" from 40,000 (in the main volumes) to 100,000 (in the index), one of the strongest sales arguments for encyclopedias.

Sven Lidman left A&W in 1963 to continue his revolutionizing work in Swedish lexicography elsewhere. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. His autobiography Uppslagsboken och jag was published in 1987. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar)

External links

• Focus, information in Swedish about the work and its Swedish editions, from Christofer Psilander's website Svenska Uppslagsverk