| This bibliometric study examined 19,385 citations in the bibliographies, book reviews, and reading lists of 70 volumes of Adult Education Quarterly, Adult Education, Adult Education Bulletin, Adult Education Journal, and Journal of Adult Education, and 13 volumes of the Handbook of Adult Education in the United States to identify books published before 1960 which have been frequently cited before and after 1960.;Through citation analysis, an initial list of 434 titles was reduced to a core list of 64 books cited five times or more during the years between 1934 and 1988.;The 64 core works were examined by publication date, citation dates, subject area, and publisher to determine those books that might be termed "classic" or "seminal." For the purposes of this study, numbers of citations were taken to mean importance of works by indicating usefulness to subsequent authors. Of the 64 books, 55 had received at least one citation before 1960 and 57 had received at least one citation after 1960. Brunner's An Overview of Adult Education Research (1950), was most frequently cited, followed by Bryson's Adult Education (1936), Clark's Adult Education in Transition (1956), Grattan's In Quest of Knowledge (1955), Lindeman's The Meaning of Adult Education (1926), and Thorndike's Adult Learning (1928).;While not all 64 of the core works constitute what might be called "classic works," it is suggested that classic works are likely to be found within the listed works. A majority of books in the list are works of history or description, most useful to historians and some students of adult education. Overall, this study provides one list of classic works useful for comparative purposes and corroborates the apparent utility of specific books, lists of books, and prominent contributors identified by subjective means or popular wisdom within the field of adult education. |
