Sienkewicz explores the role of historical editor

By: Dustin Looney
Features Editor

Tom Sienkewicz, a professor at Monmouth College, has a “side job,” in addition to teaching. Sienkewicz is also an editor for Salem Press Inc., a well-known publishing company based out of New Jersey.

Sienkewicz has worked for Salem Press for many years, and he recently edited a three volume encyclopedia set titled “Ancient Greece.”

He said editing encyclopedias is not something you just fall into and you need prior experiences to get the job.

“Editing is not something you just start off the cuff; it results in a long working relationship with the press,” Sienkewicz said. “When they were planning on doing the ‘Ancient Greece’ encyclopedias, they approached me about editing them.”

Although in the encyclopedias Sienkewicz is referred to as the “editor,” he wanted to clarify that what he does is not the typical form of editing.

Sienkewicz said he could better be described as the concept editor, as he sort of laid out the framework for the encyclopedias.

He made the table of context, bibliography, timeline and he did a lot of work on the website.

The encyclopedias consist of a variety of essays compiled about Greek history, ranging from its earliest times to the Battle of Actium.

All in all, the three volumes include 315 essays, which range in length from one to eight pages.

It includes epics of the world renowned writer Homer, as well as works from Plato and tales about Greek wars and Alexander the Great.

Past work that Sienkewicz has done for Salem Press includes book reports, annotated bibliographies and another editing job of a set of encyclopedias that covered the entire world.

Sienkewicz, who is the Capron Professor of Classics at Monmouth College, grew up on the east coast. He went to under graduate school at the College of Holy Cross and then he attended The Johns Hopkins University for classics.

He has been a professor at Monmouth for more than 20 years.

Sienkewicz said the primary reason behind editing “Ancient Greece” was to help him with his real job.

“The reason I took this editing job was the fact that it could help me become a better professor at Monmouth College.”