This book was simply marvelous, if you are into the story of the origins of the Oxford English Dictionary, this is a book that captures the makings and includes the story of two gentlemen who's lives inevitably come together in bizzare but wonderful order of circumstances, if you Love words and their origins, you will be astounded by this book!

Perhaps no where is that more in evidence, than in this story, the story of a man, Dr. Minor, confined to an insane asylum, becoming one of the leading contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary.

His story, the story of Dr. Murray, editor of the OED, how they got together and how the dictionary was compiled and edited makes for fascinating, marvelous reading. An intriguing, fascinating story well told, well written. Surprises, twists and concerns every few pages.

The book does deserve criticism for its sometimes long and laborous detail about putting the dictionary together, but as a story, the story of the two men, Murray and Minor, it is a worthwhile and fascinating read.

Winchester tells the story well, with an eye for detail, then and now, and with an empathetic if not sympathetic perspective for the humanity and the odd twists and turns involved. Good read. Buy it. Read it.

It is an understatement to say that the main character of this book had an unfortunate life. Driven by madness, this man lost his career as a surgeon after committing murder. The story could have ended there, but Dr. W.C. Minor ended up making a major contribution to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Although the story of Minor is sad, in a way this contribution offers some redemption. A story about the creation of a dictionary could very easily become dull and that was my expectation, but the author, Simon Winchester, brought the subject to life through the characters he writes about. His descriptions of the actual process of constructing the dictionary were weak, but fortunately this was not the main point of the story and so did not detract from it. Winchester has a talent for bringing this type of story to life as he demonstrated in The Map That Changed The World, a story about geologist William Smith. I am confident enough now in Winchester's ability that I look forward to reading his other book about the OED, The Meaning Of Everything. Overall, I enjoyed The Professor And The Madman and would recommend it to those readers who have a fondness for the English language.

Interesting story about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and one of its most prolific 'authors.'

There's not a great deal of depth here, but this is a well written book that makes a great companion to the OED itself.

This is an absorbing story of, as the title states, the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. You'll gain an appreciation for dictionaries and the people who have labored to produce them for us. You'll also get a stranger-than-fiction depiction of the life of a man whose prolific contributions to the OED were essential to its creation. This is great non-fiction writing and would probably appeal to those who like the works of Erik Larsen.

One of the things I've learned to love about non-fiction is how so many different things can be tied together in one topic.

If I were to say, "this book is about the making of the OED", most people's eyes would glaze over, and rightfully so.

However, it's also about a notorious murderer, the civil war, Samuel Johnson, Victorian treatments for mental illness and VD, and so many other things.

The information runs the gamut from the funny to the strange to the interesting to the incredibly sad. I did like that, though much of the book made you feel compassion for Dr. Minor, the madman in the title, the epilogue reminds you of the heinous crime he committed.

In all, though not the easiest read (it is the making of the OED, after all), this was a great book.

(*)>

I first found this book in my local library, and was engrossed by the tale told so well in its pages. Although the title seems sensational, the story told within is very tastefully done, and has no sensational tone. I came away with an appreciation of the OED, the process of its compilation, and with a better understanding of the ramifications (as well as the limitations) of the use of confinement of the clinically insane.

As soon as I saw this book available for a reasonable price, I added it to my own collection. I have even loaned my copy to friends, and their response was as enthusiastic as my own.

If these subjects are in any way of interest to you, you will not regret purchasing this book.

This was a book club selection I was reluctant to read because it sounded dull. I was happily surprised to discover it was fun to read, very informative and as I own a copy of the OED, even more interesting. Highly recommend for anyone that loves words.

I think that I could've really enjoyed this book on its own merits had the author not continued to insist throughout that the story was horrifying, amazing, shocking, thrilling, electrifying, and tragic by turns. Rarely can these "sensationalist histories" live up to their own hype. I found the book a fascinating look into the development of the OED with the bonus of the intriguing back story of one its most unusual volunteer contributors. Isn't that good enough? Why must everything be oversold? Note to the publisher: Next time undersell, over-deliver.

Locked inside the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary is an astonishing, bizarre story poignantly told in The Professor and the Madman. Well written, this disturbing story flows easily, holding the reader's interest to the end, even through the definitions!

After reading this book I have also gained a new appreciation for the beloved dictionary.

The Professor and the Madman is the yellow journalism version of the history of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), Sir James Murray, Dr. William Chester Minor, the treatment of the criminally insane during the Victorian period. I was particularly offended by the overly graphic details of Dr. Minor's self-mutilation (if you don't have a strong stomach, skip that section) and playing up of the fictionalized (and often repeated as fact) version of how Sir James and Dr. Minor first met. If the story weren't so interesting, I would encourage you to avoid the book.

Writing the first edition of the OED took 70 years and employed an unusual organizational method that has since become popular for monumental knowledge tasks -- relying on volunteers to do the bulk of the work of finding quotations that use each word in different ways over time. As someone who has always admired the OED, I enjoyed learning more about the process involved in its development. Unfortunately, that material is scattered throughout the book rather than concentrated where you can find it for a brief read through. The examples are good, however, if the material is needlessly diluted.

Thinking about that monumental effort will give you just the right foundation for appreciating how mental illness can affect parts of one's faculties while leaving others undisturbed, as the paranoid Dr. Minor employed his extensive free time in the Broadmoor Asylum for Criminally Insane and personal wealth to become of the most organized and helpful contributors to the OED.

Dr. Minor's story is the actual focus of the book. Unless you are quite interested in ironies, mental illness, and how the Victorians treated the criminally insane, you will probably find this book has more of Dr. Minor than you really care to know. It's a tragic story, but not one that I would have sought to read if the OED development process material hadn't been in the book. As background for that comment, you should know that I have a strong interest in criminal insanity and wrote my law school thesis on the subject. The book tells its story to make you feel the pain of being Dr. Minor quite well, but The Madman and the Professor won't advance your knowledge of mental illness or legal concepts of responsibility very much.

I was attracted to this book in part due to my work in leading the 400 Year Project, seeking ways to make improvements in everyone's lives at 20 times the normal rate between 2015 and 2035. I came away impressed that just a few people can make a remarkable contribution to an all-but-impossible project. I will redouble my efforts to locate such people for the 400 Year Project.

Tackle the impossible to find out what you can really do!

I did like this book and would have given it 3.5 stars is I could. The history was interesting and easy to get through, even for a casual reader of histories such as myself. However, for some reason I felt like I was dragging myself through parts. I am unable to put my finger on it, but some parts were just really slow for me. I would recomend that you read this book if for no reason than it is full of interesting facts that may come in handy at a cocktail party. In all seriousness, I did like it but read it on vacation so you can cruise through the slow parts.

IF YOU ARE SOMEWHAT INTERESTED IN MENTAL ILLNESS AND NON-FICTION, THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ. FROM THE OPENING LINES TO THE END OF THE BOOK, THIS TRUE STORY WILL HAVE YOU TURNING PAGES. THE TITLE IS SOMEWHAT MISLEADING BECAUSE YOU PROBABLY THINK "SO WHAT" ABOUT THE MAKING OF THE OXFORD DICTIONARY. BUT DO NOT LET THE TITLE FOOL YOU. THIS IS A FASCINATING STORY FROM THE 1800'S ABOUT PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA, BRILLIANT MINDS AND WRITING OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DICTIONARY OF ALL TIMES. THIS BOOK IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES

IF YOU ARE SOMEWHAT INTERESTED IN MENTAL ILLNESS AND NON-FICTION, THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ. FROM THE OPENING LINES TO THE END OF THE BOOK, THIS TRUE STORY WILL HAVE YOU TURNING PAGES. THE TITLE IS SOMEWHAT MISLEADING BECAUSE YOU PROBABLY THINK "SO WHAT" ABOUT THE MAKING OF THE OXFORD DICTIONARY. BUT DO NOT LET THE TITLE FOOL YOU. THIS IS A FASCINATING STORY FROM THE 1800'S ABOUT PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA, BRILLIANT MINDS AND WRITING OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DICTIONARY OF ALL TIMES. THIS BOOK IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES

This stranger-than-fiction account of the relationship of two key figures behind the creation of the mamouth Oxford English Dictionary truly reads like a novel. It tells of James Murray, the young scholar to whom the job of overseeing the writing and editing of the OED fell, and Dr. William Minor, an American inmate at Broadmoor lunatic asylum, who turned out to be one of Murray's most prolific researcher-writers. The story has all the elements of a juicy Victorian novel--murder, madness, men's clubs, self-mutilation, class tensions, economic struggles, and immense undertakings that only a megalomaniac or fool would dare attempt. Winchester does a good job of describing technical information (the collection and organizing of the dictionary's definitions; evolving ways of defining and treating insanity) without being opaque or dull. At the same time he employs great compassion when telling the tragic events that enveloped the story's key characters. Winchester's story telling is never heavy-handed. I especially found it amusing thew way he peppered his account with repeated statements about how everyone involved in the creation of the OED vastly underestimated how long the project would take to complete. At one point, after working for many years and always missing the publisher's deadlines, Murray confidently claims, "I have got to the stage where I can estimate the end. In all human probability the Oxford English Dictionary will be finished on my eightieth birthday, four years from now." Winchester wryly adds, "But it was not to be. Neither was the OED to be completed in four years, nor was Sir James ever to become an octogenarian." All in all, the last volume was publishe 44 years after the project began.

This stranger-than-fiction account of the relationship of two key figures behind the creation of the mamouth Oxford English Dictionary truly reads like a novel. It tells of James Murray, the young scholar to whom the job of overseeing the writing and editing of the OED fell, and Dr. William Minor, an American inmate at Broadmoor lunatic asylum, who turned out to be one of Murray's most prolific researcher-writers. The story has all the elements of a juicy Victorian novel--murder, madness, men's clubs, self-mutilation, class tensions, economic struggles, and immense undertakings that only a megalomaniac or fool would dare attempt. Winchester does a good job of describing technical information (the collection and organizing of the dictionary's definitions; evolving ways of defining and treating insanity) without being opaque or dull. At the same time he employs great compassion when telling the tragic events that enveloped the story's key characters. Winchester's story telling is never heavy-handed. I especially found it amusing thew way he peppered his account with repeated statements about how everyone involved in the creation of the OED vastly underestimated how long the project would take to complete. At one point, after working for many years and always missing the publisher's deadlines, Murray confidently claims, "I have got to the stage where I can estimate the end. In all human probability the Oxford English Dictionary will be finished on my eightieth birthday, four years from now." Winchester wryly adds, "But it was not to be. Neither was the OED to be completed in four years, nor was Sir James ever to become an octogenarian." All in all, the last volume was publishe 44 years after the project began.

I'm actually not a big fan of history. But through working in the Friends of the Library and knowing how much I enjoy my OED, several people recommended this book to me. I've been told that if more than one person recommends the same book to you, you should read it. So far, following that advice has ALWAYS given me a great read.
It is a fascinating account of what it took to write the OED, with a very interesting and factual story interwoven about a man who was pivotal in its success. I would happily read it again. I enjoy my OED even more now; I can feel the history in its pages.
Lisa

I'm actually not a big fan of history. But through working in the Friends of the Library and knowing how much I enjoy my OED, several people recommended this book to me. I've been told that if more than one person recommends the same book to you, you should read it. So far, following that advice has ALWAYS given me a great read.
It is a fascinating account of what it took to write the OED, with a very interesting and factual story interwoven about a man who was pivotal in its success. I would happily read it again. I enjoy my OED even more now; I can feel the history in its pages.
Lisa

The quality of the book and the writing would normally only warrant a four-star rating from this reader, but then I spent a moment to consider the topic it addresses. The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, the "lonely drudgery of lexicography" is not, at first glance, a subject that immediately incites the interest. Yet Winchester, once again, delivers an eminently enjoyable work (I also have read his Krakatoa, a subject volcanic and eruptive, rather than erudite and contemplative). He well describes the difficulty of compiling such a massive work, and, to some extent, the importance in having done so. By the time we finish the book, we do feel that the OED was "the heroic creation of a legion of interested and enthusiastic men and women...", that their story is, in fact, one we should be interested in and enthusiastic about. Winchester accomplishes this feat primarily through the biographical details of those eponymous gentlemen, The Professor, Dr. James Murray, and the Madman, an American military surgeon by the name of W.C. Minor.

Lastly, I think the aspect of this printing that most readers will find odd are the completely unneccessary and out-of-place illustrations, but it is unlikely they will detract from your enjoyment of this book.

An interesting glimpse into two very different lives. The book is well written, flows quickly and is consistently interesting. With this book Winchester (or his editor) avoids the long diversions that made Krakatoa miss the mark.

This is a good mystery story but make sure your vocabulary is up to snuff or it will make for difficult reading and several trips to the dictionary.

This is a good mystery story but make sure your vocabulary is up to snuff or it will make for difficult reading and several trips to the dictionary.

How many times have you picked up a dictionary and thought to yourself how boring a book it seems to be?

Well, you may be surprised to learn that the story of how the original Oxford English Dictionary came into being has all of the same dark and fascinating charm of a Victorian gothic novel.

This is a fast paced and exciting story with a real twist at the end.

The focus of Simon Winchester's book is the contribution that Dr. William Chester Minor (of the "wildly wrong" brain above) made to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. He made his contribution from the confines of his cell at Broadmoor, the 19th centuray equivalent of a modern mental health institution. From that cell, and in correspondence with Professor James Murray, Dr. Minor supplied more entries to the OED than virtually anyone else in its volunteer army. Winchester's tale is well-told and scupulously researched. Indeed, he corrects the historical record as to the first meeting between Minor and Murray. Moreover, Winchester is to be applauded for recognizing that Minor's victim, whom Minor shot down in cold blood during one of his delusional episodes, ultimately merits recognition for inadvertently allowing the OED to benefit from Dr. Minor's work. A fascinating story that provides insights into society, mental illness and scholarship during the creation of one of the great achievements of civilization in the west.

How come the author didn't know that when Dr. Minor was a student at Yale, he worked as an assistent to a professor who was helping to compile Webster's Dictionary (1864 edition), and that Minor's contribution was so great that he was given special mention in the preface of that dictionary? How much research did the author really do into Minor's life in America?

On the pages of "The Professor and the Madman", the author wonders how Minor could have become so good with citations. According to John Morse of Merriam-Webster, the likely answer is that Minor learned those skills while working for Webster's, a great AMERICAN dictionary.

[...]

Buy this used- not new, it isn't worthg paying full price. Great subject, the author has definitely done careful research, but it doesn't add up to a particularly interesting book. It keeps going backwards and forwards, from one topic to another. Is it necessary for the author to give a full history of Dictionaries, except to pad the length of the book? Written in a pleasant tone which wavers between the informative and the overly familiar. If you've read one of the magazine articles about this case you already know the story and won't learn much of anything new.

As an American Civil War veteran assigned to an institution for the criminally insane,Dr.William Chester Minor contributed thousands of words to the Oxford English Dictionary(OED).He along with the OED's editorial overseer, Professor James Murray, and a volunteer staff in the hundreds produced over a forty year period the monumental work that has defined the English language.
Simon Winchester has ferreted out briefly but exquisitely the extraordinary bond that existed between these two word masters. He has been able to captivate the reader to the extent that even if one were only mildly interested in the rudiments of lexicography they would come to a totally new appreciation of the sacrifice and dedication of these two men and their colleagues.
This book certainly deserves the accolades as a best seller which it received in hardback back in 1998 and subsequently issued in paperback.This work has sparked my interest in Mr. Winchester's other literary efforts.

I thoroughly enjoyed it but I was surprised that so many other people did, because the theme is rather esoteric. It's a book about nineteenth century dictionary making, and the biography of a paranoid scholar who spent most of his life in what were then called lunatic asylums after killing a man under the influence of a delusion.
Why is it so fascinating? I think the answer must lie in Simon Winchester rather than his two protagonists, James Murray LLD (Oxon) and W C Minor MD (Yale). You catch his enthusiasm and get involved in the thoroughness of the author's detective work as he goes about his business. I especially enjoyed the postscript and author's note and acknowledgements at the end where he describes his research and some of the details he delved into.
I wondered about his statement that Kraepelin regarded manic-depressive illness as more likely to have a physical origin than does dementia praecox. I don't find any evidence of that in Johnstone's 1904 translation of the "Lectures on Clinical Psychiatry." I haven't checked the big Lehrbuch.

The story is a very compelling one. However, if you're not a person obsessed with the origins of the English language, Winchester's vocabulary and all of the information on the creation of the OED might get a tad tedious.
Another problem with the book is that it lacks logical organization. Winchester goes jumping from one subject to the next, from time period to time period with no smooth transitions. While reading it, it took awhile for my brain to catch up with what my eyes were reading.
As much as I liked the basis behind the book, I couldn't believe that it ever spent time at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list. If Winchester would have spent more time on organization than looking up difficult words that less than half the world's population can understand the book would have been much better.
It's worth a read if you're looking for something educational and weird, but not for the faint of heart. (Self mutilation is in there.)

The present book was written in approximately 1998, but now it has a competitor. "The Meaning of Everything" was more recently published in 2003 by the same author Simon Winchester. So Winchester now has two books on the subject, and the newer book is much better than the book being reviewed here.

Simon Winchester is a gifted writer. The first book "Professor and the Madman" reads like a fast paced novel and that is why it has been popular and got a 5 star rating. Having said that it was just an introduction to the writing of the monumental work of the original Oxford English Dictionary (OED). The original OED is not to be confused with an Oxford dictionary found at a modern bookstore. The original OED is a series of volumes that gives many quotes for each and every word to show how the word is used. Starting with the letter "A" it took a remarkable 70 years to complete the final volume that included the letter "Z". It was started from first concept in 1857 and went on until it was completed with the final tenth volume in 1928.

One of the prime movers of that book was James Murray who started at the beginning in 1878. Prior to that date, nothing of practical value was done between 1857 and 1878. He was in essence the first editor (technically the thrird), and he edited the dictionary up to the volume ending with the letter T - the degree of the progress of the dictionary at his death in 1915.

When Murray started his work around 1878-79 the group at Oxford sent out advertisements to solicit readers who might be able to send words with accompanying quotations - the basic format of the dictionary. They knew they needed help from the public and that was their technique to speed up the work. The group at Oxford largely concentrated on editing, checking and compiling the quotes and words. Many people sent in quotes including one individual from an individual in a home for the criminally insane - who happened to collect and read old books.

This first book by Winchester largely deals with this interesting character who had responded to these advertisements in 1879-80 and sent in words and quotations. He was an American Dr. William Minor (MD) from Connecticut who had been committed to a mental hospital located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, one hour by train from Oxford. In some ways it is too much information about this man - my opinion. It is interesting to a point but again I think there is too much information on this person - which I will not repeat here. Some of it is to say the least - unsettling - to know the grimy details of his mental illness - schizophrenia.

The first book was written in approximately 1998. The span of time has given the author the opportunity to present a better package of ideas.

I bought both books by Winchester but in retrospect would have skipped the first book and just bought the newer book. The newer book has one chapter on Dr. Minor - which for me is enough.

So skip this book just by the new one.

It's bad enough that most trade books are poorly edited, but a book aimed at word-nerds should be pristine. Is it laziness? Stinginess? There's no excuse.

Winchester writes up a melodrama, but this tale of Dr. William Minor who contributed numerous cited quotations to the Oxford English Dictionary while confined to an institution for the criminally insane is repetitive and short on hard facts. The latter is no surprise since Minor and his friend James Murray, the chief editor for decades on the 70 year project, are both long dead and left little in the way of personal correspondence or writings about their friendship. Much of the book is made up of Winchester's conjecture about what made Minor mad -- essentially horrible things in wartime -- and notes about his madness from his doctors and Minor himself. These are remarkably consistent for the more than 50 years since the the murder that his insanity sparked and, frankly, the lurid tales of having unspeakable sexual things done to him by people hiding under his floorboards at night sound more and more like filler the fourth and fifth time around. Winchester also has an orotund prose style that I suppose is intended to sound 19th century-ish, but in fact just sounds inflated. This book would have made a great long New Yorker article, but as a book it manages to be both overblown and thin.

I came to read this book in a strange way... My mother was part of a book club and I saw it sitting on her coffee table. I aked her if it was any good and she said that she liked it but a lot of people in her book club prefer fiction - they seemed unimpressed. Well, truth is stranger and often times more eloquent then fiction. The adage is a perfect set-up for this book layered with stories. Simon Winchester does a service to the overall story by highlighting just the right stories at just the right time. He makes the book enough of a mystery to drive the reader at break-neck speed. One actually forgets that this is actually history! Both the Professor and the Madman serve as twisted, incredible figures throughout the book.

I have read two other books by Simon Winchester. This is by far his best in every way (Though I haven't read Krakatoa yet). Rest assured that even if you prefer fiction - read this book. Don't make the same mistake as the "nameless" book club.

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.

This book is well written and pulls the reader in. Unfortunatley after about the first few pages of the story, it begins to spiral inward explaining nuances of the story that are no longer that interesting (and are already clearly understandable in the larger summary). I recommend reading the first few chapters and then quitting.