53. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary - NF

by Simon Winchester (242 pgs)

Rating: 4

Dr. Minor and Dr. Murray are about as different as possible but they shared a common pursuit: the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED is particularly interesting because it not only is a dictionary in the normal sense but it also provides quotations for each meaning and shade of meaning every word has. After a ragged beginning, Dr. Murray is put in charge of the enormous project of creating the OED. To do this he, as did his predecessors, appealed to the learned populace to volunteer much of the labor of collecting quotations. Oddly it was several years before Dr. Murray realizes that one of his most valuable volunteers is actually institutionalized as criminally insane.

The Professor and the Madman is a compellingly written work of non-fiction. It was quite difficult to put down and, aside from a section on the history of lexicography, it was a well paced narrative. Winchester draws as sources: military records, hospital notes, correspondence, and records from the present offices of the OED. He weaves these disparate sources into a nearly seamless story that is fascinating and melancholy. He also points out the subtle irony that had Dr. Minor been treated for his schizophrenia, it is possible that the OED would not exist in it's current form.

Recommended to people with very large vocabularies and students of the English language.