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

By: Simon Winchester

Published 2005 by Harper Perennial (first published September 28th 1998)

Category: Arts

Pages: 242 pages

ISBN: 9780060839789

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.