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Title: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0-06-099486-X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: August, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (341 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Brothersjudddotcom recommends
Comment: This is an extremely interesting story, so much so that you can see why anyone who heard about it would feel compelled to share it. But it's pretty slender and just barely worthy of a book length treatment. It seems like it would work better as a long magazine article or even as a novel and it will make a terrific movie.
In the latter portion of the 19th century, when James A. H. Murray faced the monumental task of compiling the initial version of the Oxford English Dictionary, he sent out a call for contributors. One of the most reliable and thorough volunteers proved to be Dr. William Chester Minor. But Minor resisted entreaties to visit the operations of the OED and to partake in the celebrations as volumes were completed. The reason for his reticence turned out to be his incarceration in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
Minor, an American, was profoundly disturbed and a murderer to boot. After some disquieting years of service in a medical unit during the Civil War, he fixed upon an obsession that Irishmen wanted to kill him. His psychoses finally led him to gun down a complete stranger on a British street and he was institutionalized. He eventually spent about 50 of his over 80 years in some form of state care, where he was continually plagued by delusions that he was being spied upon and his food poisoned, and at one point he mutilated himself in a fashion which will have male readers cringing in horror. Meanwhile, his incarceration and his educational attainment made him uniquely well suited to contribute to the mammoth undertaking that was the OED.
Winchester does a creditable job of showing how two very different men were united by their love of language and learning. But, there are pretty obvious dramatic limitations to a true life story that involves one subject who's institutionalized and another who's writing a dictionary. Like I said, it's a pretty slim tale, but it is fascinating.
Rating: 4
Summary: A charming, entertaining footnote to scholarly history
Comment: Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary is a charming and fascinating sidebar to one of the great works of scholarship in history. The Oxford English Dictionary took over 70 years to produce its first edition, and remains the definitive text on the historical development of the English language. It could not have been published without the unpaid efforts of over 800 dedicated volunteers - including Dr. William Minor, an American Army surgeon, incarcerated for almost 40 years in an English insane asylum for murdering a London brewery worker during an attack of a delusional paranoia that afflicted him his entire life.
The Professor and the Madman focuses on Minor's contribution to the work of Sir James Murray, the Scots genius who was the OED's first and greatest editor. Minor, when he wasn't being delusional, was a brilliant, assiduous reader, devoted to the English language and delighted to be part of the enormous project.
Winchester's book is a very quick read, and a delightful one. There are better books on Murray and the OED; but The Professor and the Madman gives a unique human insight into the enterprise, and the love of a language that inspired two such disparate individuals.
Anyone who loves to read and write will rightfully revere the OED and what it represents; also the enormous labors that went into its compilation. The Professor and the Madman is but a footnote to the history of that effort; but it is a lovely little footnote.
Rating: 4
Summary: Fun and Accessible
Comment: Being a dictionary enthusiast, especially of the OED, I was excited to come across this book. It reads quickly, and has a wealth of factual information and also some fun speculation. The author uses lots of words which are themselves fun to look up, but also has OED references printed right in. I suggest that any fan of the OED read this book.
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Title: The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0198607024 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Map That Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0060931809 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Krakatoa : The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0066212855 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ISBN: 0140258795 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1996 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The River at the Center of the World : A Journey Up the Yangtze and Back in Chinese Time by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0805055088 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 15 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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