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The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary began in 1857, took seventy years to complete, drew from tens of thousands of brilliant minds, and organized the sprawling language into 414,825 precise definitions. But hidden within the rituals of its creation is a fascinating and mysterious story - a story of two remarkable men whose strange twenty-year relationship lies at the core of this historic undertaking.
Professor James Murray, an astonishingly learned former schoolmaster and bank clerk, was the distinguished editor of the OED project. Dr. William Chester Minor, an American surgeon from New Haven, Connecticut, who had served in the Civil War, was one of thousands of contributors who submitted illustrative quotations of words to be used in the dictionary. But Minor was no ordinary contributor.
He was remarkably prolific, sending thousands of neat, handwritten quotations from his home in the small village of Crowthorne, fifty miles from Oxford. On numerous occasions Murray invited Minor to visit Oxford and celebrate his work, but Murray's offer was regularly - and mysteriously - refused.
Thus the two men, for two decades, maintained a close relationship only through correspondence. Finally, in 1896, after Minor had sent nearly ten thousand definitions to the dictionary but had still never traveled from his home, a puzzled Murray set out to visit him. It was then that Murray finally learned the truth about Minor - that, in addition to being a masterful wordsmith, Minor was also a murderer, clinically insane - and locked up in Broadmoor, England's harshest asylum for criminal lunatics.
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Subjects
Biography, Biography & Autobiography, Encyclopedias and dictionaries, English language, Etymology, Friends and associates, History, History and criticism, Lexicographers, Lexicography, New English dictionary on historical principles, Nonfiction, Oxford English dictionary, Psychiatric hospital patients, United States Civil War, 1861-1865, Veterans, Lexicographes, Anglais (Langue), Encyclopédies et dictionnaires anglais, Lexicographie, Amis et relations, Anciens combattants, Patients dans les hôpitaux psychiatriques, Histoire, Histoire et critique, Biographies, Étymologie, American Civil War (1861-1865) fast (OCoLC)fst01351658, Friendship, Encyclopedias and dictionaries, history and criticism, English language, etymology, English language, lexicography, Mentally ill, biography, United states, history, civil war, 1861-1865, biography, Large type books, Patients des hôpitaux psychiatriquesShowing 10 featured editions. View all 10 editions?
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01
The Professor and the Madman
2006, HarperCollins
Electronic resource
in English
006112236X 9780061122361
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02
Professor and the Madman
July 2005, Tandem Library
Unknown Binding
in English
1417692642 9781417692644
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03
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (P.S.)
July 5, 2005, Harper Perennial
Paperback
in English
0060839783 9780060839789
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04
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (P.S.)
July 5, 2005, Harper Perennial
in English
0060839783 9780060839789
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05
Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
July 2003, Tandem Library
School & Library Binding
in English
0613621557 9780613621557
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06
Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
March 2003, Harpercollins
Paperback
in English
0965792951 9780965792950
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07
The professor and the madman: a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English dictionary
1999, HarperPerennial
in English
- 1st Harperperennial ed.
006099486X 9780060994860
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08
The professor and the madman: a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English dictionary
1999, G.K. Hall
in English
0783885008 9780783885001
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09
The professor and the madman: a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English dictionary
1998, HarperCollins Publishers
in English
- 1st ed.
0060175966 9780060175962
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10
The professor and the madman: a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English dictionary
1998, HarperCollins Publishers
in English
- 1st ed.
0060175966 9780060175962
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-242).
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Work 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.
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