 As a literary text, the encyclopaedia has value as an example of early 20th-century prose.For example, it employs literary devices, such as pathetic fallacy (attribution of human-like traits to impersonal forces or inanimate objects), which are not as common in modern reference texts.In 1917, using the pseudonym of S. S. Van Dine, the US art critic and author Willard Huntington Wright published "", a 200+ page criticism of inaccuracies and biases of the "Encyclopædia Britannica" eleventh edition.