|
|
The Professor and the
Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The
Oxford English Dictionary by Simon
Winchester (Author)
|
 |
- Paperback: 272 pages ;
Dimensions (in inches): 0.64 x 8.00 x 5.36
- Publisher: Perennial; (August
1999)
- ISBN: 006099486X
|
|
|
Book
Description
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, begun in
1857, 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.
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
|
|
