Posts tagged OED

Book Two: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Winchester, Simon.

Background: Simon Winchester was born in London in 1944, but currently lives in New York. He has written over a dozen non-fiction books as well as one novel. Winchester started out in journalism and still contributes to several travel magazines. He entered Oxford University to study geology and worked in the field for several years. While working in Africa, he was inspired by James Morris’s book, Coronation Everest, and contacted the writer for advice. Morris urged Winchester to give up geology and become a writer, advice he clearly took.

Brief Synopsis (hopefully short, but not boring): Winchester tells the entire seventy-year history of the OED along with the histories of two men who made the dictionary possible: Professor James Murray and Doctor W. C. Minor. As definitions were collected and quotations were compiled, editor Murray discovered that one man, Dr. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand definitions. Little was known about the American doctor until the overseeing committee decided to honor those who most contributed to the great undertaking. It was then they discovered the shocking truth that Minor was an inmate of an asylum for the criminally insane.

What did I think of it?

I feel the need to preface this with the fact that I am a big dork with an English degree.

I loved this book. I don’t really know what else to say, partly because I have neglected this entry for too long. I learned a lot of new and interesting things. Winchester artfully intertwines the histories of the three main figures with background information on the history of English language dictionaries, the Civil War, and mental health treatment without being boring or irrelevant. Though that could just be because I found it all interesting. Winchester clearly knew a lot about his subject matter, but handled it with wit and a great deal of sympathy for the people he discussed. He clearly has a great deal of sympathy for Minor and is able to make the reader feel the same.

Winchester practically oozes dork when he talks about the OED. An appreciation for the history as well as the aesthetics of the dictionary is clear. It was hard not to indulge in the same dorky glee, but that could just be me. I couldn’t help but giggle every time he wrote about the predicted completion time for the dictionary just to follow it with how long one letter took the compilers to complete. Winchester also brings just the right amount of emotion to his discussion of the Civil War and the punishments for desertion. I felt appropriately horrified and could imagine the impact it might have had in Dr. Minor. Not all writers can emotionally connect the reader to historical facts and keep them interested in a topic that could be very boring. In my opinion, Winchester does a great job of keeping things interesting, but it would just be the big dork in me talking.

Would I recommend it to others? I recommend the book to any OED fan or literary dork, or well, anyone else who thinks it sounds at all interesting. I give it 5 stars.