The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (P.S.)

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

Product 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 began in 1857, it 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.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

It was a fascinating read for me, as a former Editorial Assistant on the OED Supplement. The only point of fact I would mention is that the second supplement was in four volumes - not four separate supplements as Winchester suggests.

The original OED was written in a corrugated iron shed in Murray's garden. The second supplement was written in a terraced house in a quiet backstreet off Walton Street in Oxford, with only one typewriter in the building. Quotations came in from all sorts and conditions of persons. (One I remember was a label from a can of baked beans.) So maybe a contributor from a lunatic assylum isn't so surprising.


Insanity and brillance, triumph and tragedy...   February 19, 2006
Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA)
16 out of 18 found this review helpful

After reading Simon Winchester's The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, I was anxious to read his related book, The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. What an incredible story! Although smaller in scope than The Meaning of Everything, The Professor and the Madman still details some of the key elements about the creation of the dictionary, along with an unlikely relationship that developed in its making.

The story of the Oxford English Dictionary is itself fascinating story. Taking almost 70 years to complete, the OED has become the gold standard of what a dictionary should be. But compiling the OED was no easy task. The editors decided that they wanted not only the spellings and meanings but also, the history of each word. When they realized what a gigantic task this was going to be, they recruited "hundreds and hundreds of unpaid volunteers." Their job was to comb through volumes of books, newspapers, magazines and journals to come up with various words and the sentences in which they appeared. At the time, Dr. James Murray was the editor of the OED, and this plea to the public brought him in contact with American, Dr. William Chester Minor. As Winchester states, the dictionary will be the starting point for the relationship between the two men that "would combine sublime scholarship, fierce tragedy, Victorian reserve, deep gratitude, mutual respect, and a slowly growing amity." This link would last until the death of James Murray thirty years later.

Dr. Minor was a brilliant man. Born and raised in Ceylon of American missionary parents, he was sent to Yale as a teen and graduated as a medical doctor. He enlisted in the army in 1863 and witnessed tragedy during the Battle of the Wilderness. Something inside his delicate mind seemed to snap, and he was never the same. Suffering from paranoia and delusions, he headed to London to make a fresh start. But while there, he murdered an innocent man. He was found not guilty but insane, and institutionalized in Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane. It was from here that he started sending Dr. Murray dozens and dozens of words for his new dictionary. But while most contributors sent smatterings of words, Dr. Minor harvested them and had them at the ready for when Dr. Murray needed them. At first, Murray thought Minor was on the staff at Broadmoor. It took a number of years before he finally discovered the truth. Still, Murray cultivated a relationship with Minor and began visiting him regularly. Minor ended up being one of the primary volunteer contributors to the OED.

Today, Minor would be diagnosed as a schizophrenic and doctors today have lots of medicines in their arsenals to help schizophrenics lead more normal lives. But back in the late 1800's, his malady was considered incurable. The irony is that if he had been treated today, he might not have worked as obsessively on the OED if he was prescribed antipsychotic drugs. In fact, he might not have been able to work at all. Working on the OED was his therapy. And when it ceased to be important, his life truly spiraled out of control.

Winchester is himself a wordsmith, and his writing is beautiful. When describing the rules set down for the dictionary, he writes "The English, who had raised eccentricity and poor organization to a high art, and placed the scatterbrain on a pedestal, loathed such Middle European things as rules, conventions, and dictatorships." He also writes about the meaning of words, "there should be sentences that show the twists and turns and meanings-the way almost every word slips in its silvery, fishlike way, weaving this way and that, adding subtleties of nuance to itself, and then shedding them as the public mood dictates." One nice touch is to include a vocabulary word and definition at the beginning of each chapter--one that is related to that chapter.

Simon Winchester is an incredibly talented writer, and The Professor and the Madman and The Meaning of Everything make for great companion books.



Great story   May 27, 2005
Christopher Hivner (Dallastown, PA USA)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

This was a fascinating story. An American doctor, his mind lost, possibly from horrors he saw during service in the Civil War, moves to London to escape his demons. Since the demons are all in his mind, they remain with him and one morning it comes to a head when he shoots a man he believes was in his room. The man was merely walking to work at the wrong place and wrong time. Dcotor W.C. Minor is found to be insane and sent to Broadmoor Asylum for Criminal Lunatics. The only thing that keeps the brilliant doctor going is his books which he continues to collect. Through chance he finds a flyer in one of the books asking for volunteers to help compile the first Oxford English Dictionary, an undertaking that will span 70 years. Over the next 20 years Minor is instrumental in helping to edit one of the greatest undertakings in English literature. Because his correspondence was done through the mail, it's 8 years before the main editor, James Murray, finds out his most impressive helper is working from an asylum. After meeting him, they strike up a friendship.

This books flows beautifully through this story, giving you background on James Murray and Dr. Minor. You come to see Murray for the kind of person he is, who sees Minor as more than a man who has lost his mind. With Dr. Minor you realize how fragile the human psyche is. Over 100 years later, we can now treat illnesses like his, but still don't know what causes them. He spent 38 years suffering the worst paranoid delusions, but was also a major figure in a great literary achievement. I for one am glad someone brought this story to light.