The Professor and the Madman

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

288 pages

English language

Published July 5, 2005 by Harper Perennial.

ISBN:
978-0-06-083978-9
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4 stars (12 reviews)

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.

10 editions

Review of 'The Professor and the Madman' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Overall a good look at the history of English dictionaries in general, and a profile of the lives of Dr. Minor and James Murray. I did drop this a star because of commentary towards the end as to whether Dr. Minor being properly treated for his mental illness would have prevented his working on the dictionary, and thus would have been a loss to English language as a whole. Nonsense. He liked words, and all his institutionalization did was provide him with nothing else to do, so he contributed more. I strenuously object to the idea that mental illness is something that sparks creativity (think of all the, "art is suffering" people). His work on the dictionary wasn't hampered by his delusions, therefore the only thing we can conclude is that he would probably have gotten a fair amount of research done in his free time had he received adequate …

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