Professor and the Madman - CDN edition - Softcover

Winchester, Simon

3.84

117,070 ratings by Goodreads

9780060955397: Professor and the Madman - CDN edition

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060955392 ISBN 13: 9780060955397

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 1999

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Professor and the Madman - CDN edition (View amazon detail page) ASIN: 0060955392

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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

From the Back Cover:

Limited Edition

“I am the Governor of the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Dr Minor is most certainly here.”

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