The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Amazon.com Review: When the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary put out a call during the late 19th century pleading for "men of letters" to provide help with their mammoth undertaking, hundreds of responses came forth. Some helpers, like Dr. W.C. Minor, provided literally thousands of entries to the editors. But Minor, an American expatriate in England and a Civil War veteran, was actually a certified lunatic who turned in his dictionary entries from the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Simon Winchester has produced a mesmerizing coda to the deeply troubled Minor's life, a life that in one sense began with the senseless murder of an innocent British brewery worker that the deluded Minor believed was an assassin sent by one of his numerous "enemies."
Winchester also paints a rich portrait of the OED's leading light, Professor James Murray, who spent more than 40 years of his life on a project he would not see completed in his lifetime. Winchester traces the origins of the drive to create a "Big Dictionary" down through Murray and far back into the past; the result is a fascinating compact history of the English language (albeit admittedly more interesting to linguistics enthusiasts than historians or true crime buffs). That Murray and Minor, whose lives took such wildly disparate turns yet were united in their fierce love of language, were able to view one another as peers and foster a warm friendship is just one of the delicately turned subplots of this compelling book. --Tjames Madison
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Informative and darkly hilarious!
I grabbed this one off the public library shelf on a whim. It looked like it might be really boring but as I was due in my reading regimen (3 books/week -- 2 fiction, one non-fiction) for a non-fiction ... Read More
Rating: - A fascinating story well worth your time!
(This review is for the unabridged audio book, read by the author, Simon Winchester).
This is the tale of how the greatest and most definitive dictionary in the English language came to be, ... Read More
Rating: - The Professor and the Madman
It is an interesting book, explaining how the Oxford English Dictionary was put together by volunteers supplying definitions and quotes for every word in the English language. In the back of the book is ... Read More
Rating: - Supplement, Addendum, Prequel, Sequel, Corollary
Though it was written before "The Meaning of Everything" it could easily serve as a chapter or appendix to the book. Winchester does a superb job of telling both the early history of the OED while at the ... Read More
Rating: - Three-and-a-half stars, really.
The first time that I had ever heard about the Oxford English Dictionary, I was a freshman at Bryn Mawr-- straight from the sticks. I had tested out of needing to take the freshman English classes, and had ... Read More
- Informative and darkly hilarious!