I bought this book seeing it as akin to a "true crime" because one of the protagonists, Dr. Minor, is locked up in an asylum for murder. While in the asylum, he makes major contributions to the Oxford English Dictionary via correspondence with the professor putting it together, who for a long time is completely unaware that his correspondent is, in the parlance of the time, "mad".


I ended up learning a lot about the Oxford English Dictionary and dictionaries in general. I had no idea that it took so long for anyone to get the idea of putting together a dictionary, and no idea how one was originally compiled, so all of that was new, interesting information to me. However, I didn't really buy this book for the purpose of learning about dictionaries. I was expecting Dr. Minor to have much more of an interesting history and play a bigger role in the story than he does. For example, I wondered whether Minor was really mad or whether, as happened in those days, he just happened to have landed in an asylum on false pretenses or unjust grounds. However, the book makes it quite clear he definitely deserves to be in there and no mistake, so there's no mystery or story to his being locked up. And the reasons why he is locked up, or at least the reasons that are definitely supported by the record, are pretty pat. Minor is simply not as interesting a character as the jacket blurb would lead you to believe.

The author interjects a lot of speculation about events in Minor's life that may or may not have happened or might just be a pipe dream of the author's. In general, the author seems to have added a lot of padding to make this into a fairly slim little book. I felt that the whole story would have made a great article in Smithsonian magazine, maybe even a two-part article, or perhaps could have been a vignette included in a history book about how dictionaries came to be. But the story simply doesn't have enough meaty, factual content to justify an entire book-length treatment.

I was really disappointed with The Professor and the Madman, but I had bought this too and was determined to read it, so I did. Like Winchester's other dictionary book, it failed to live up to its promise, but for somewhat different reasons. His purple prose style, which I found nigh unto intolerable in The Professor and the Madman, is toned down to some extent in The Meaning of Everything, but this book ends up being equally disappointing for its own reasons.

Essentially, this book takes a very interesting story and focuses on all the wrong parts of it. Winchester seems to fetishize Victorian England, a fetish I decidedly do not share; the space he devotes to romantic treatments of his Victorian gentleman scholars and their leisurely pursuits was thus wasted on me. He also devotes entirely too much of the book to discussions of political infighting among the various people and institutions involved in the making of the dictionary. He doesn't do this extremely well, so it's confusing, and it's not interesting anyway.

This leads to the real crime, which is his inexcusable neglect of the really interesting story of the dictionary and of the language it sought to catalog. Throughout the book there are asides about various issues of language: that "black" was a "terrible" word that took three months of work, that words headed by consonants were expected to be "lexically and etymologically far simpler" than words headed by vowels, but the letter B was much harder than expected. He even explicitly acknowledges how interesting all of this is, as he calls the introductory essays to the volumes of the OED-in-progress, addressing these and similar problems, "essential reading." But he ignores all of it himself, in favor of little teasers he will never discuss in detail, and for the sake of spending more time recounting the politics!

Very disappointing. This book could have been so much more.

Any lover of words cannot fail but be intrigued by this engrossing story of how the Oxford English Dictionary came into being--and how two very different men found their lives entwined by their mutual love of words, books, and language.

What is most striking about this story is that prior to 1692, English dictionaries did not exist. In Shakespeare's time, there was no source for definitions and spellings (which may account for the great variety of spellings during that time). Words were defined by their usage in books. Then, in the mid-eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson published A Dictionary of the English Language, which defined 43,500 selected headwords. It remained the standard for the next century.

In 1857, Dr. Richard Trench, a member of London's Philological Society, came up with a great plan: to collect in a "big dictionary" all the words in the English language, with their pronounciations, definitions, and usages. Each word was to be accompanied with quotations illustrating its various meanings and its first recorded use.

Trench proposed that an army of amateur volunteers be recruited to read certain books, looking for words, each of which they would write on a slip with a quotation (with page number) showing the word's meaning. It was an incredibly bold and ambitious venture. Originally estimated to take several years, the first edition of the dictionary was completed over 70 years after it had first been proposed. To this day, the OED, as it is familiarly called, remains the ultimate English-language word souce worldwide.

The Professor and the Madman focuses on two men who made the creation of this dictionary their life's work. Professor James Murray, the original editor, and Dr. W. C. Minor, a contributor of more than 10,000 of the book's well over half million entries. Although the two men worked as colleagues for over 20 years, they communicated primarily by post, and their shared interest in the dictionary belied the vast differences in their personal lives.

James Murray was an academician and a scholar. From a humble background, he distinguished himself as a man of letters, coming to the attention of the brilliant eccentric Frederick Furnivall (the model for the Water Rat in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows). Furnivall, who was secretary of the Philological Society and a member of the amusingly named "Unregistered Words Committee," recommended Murray as editor of the dictionary. Murray took the position in the spring of 1879, and immediately issued an appeal for volunteers, which was published in newspapers and distributed widely by booksellers. During his tenure as editor, Murray received more than six million small slips of papers with words from volunteers. He had the mammoth job of sorting through these many slips to select the best definitions and quotations illlustrating usage. He also faced a challenge Scrabblers can appreciate: Language is constantly changing, never "complete." Indeed, Murray's reluctant acceptance of that fact did not deter him. Were he alive today, he would undoubtedly revel in seeing the OED move from its twelve massive volumes in 1927, to a two-volume set with a magnifying glass in the late 1970s, to the online version available[...].

Although not the foremost contributing volunteer to the OED, Dr. William Chester Minor was certainly the strangest. An American, Yale-educated army surgeon imprisoned for murder at the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum in Berkshire, Minor suffered from what is now called paranoid schizophrenia. Each night he imagined malevolent figures emerging from the floorboards or falling down from the ceiling and torturing him in bizarre ways. He ended up spending the majority of his adult life institutionalized. Responding to one of Professor Murray's nationwide pleas for dictionary volunteers, Minor found new purpose in his life, and his meticulous research and submissions earned him the highest praise from the editor. Minor worked on the project for twenty years, poring over books from the 17th century to find quotations illustrating meanings and the first documented use of a word. To this day, thousands of Minor's submissions remain in the OED, the majority appearing little changed from how they had been submitted.

While the stories of Murray and Minor make for fascinating reading, the true star of this book is the dictionary itself. During the course of seven decades, the "big dictionary" project sees various contributors lose interest or die, and yet the dictionary continues on. To give an idea of the amount of work involved, the T section of the dictionary alone took a full five years to complete. At one particularly poignant moment in the book, Murray offers his dying supporter Furnivall a glance at final "majestically long" entry for the word take. With the many dictionaries of our time and their frequent updates, it is amazing to read how this dictionary, the great-grandfather of them all, came to be.

Author Simon Winchester, who has written a dozen other books and is a frequent contributor to Vanity Fair, gives readers a provoking look at the world of that era. From the battlefields of the American Civil War, where Dr. Minor tends dying soldiers, to the rough Lambeth Marsh section of Victorian London, where the delirious Minor kills an innocent laborer, to the rarified world of Oxford, where Professor Murray and his colleagues discuss the future of the English language, Winchester tells a compelling story. Our lexicon today owes much to Murray, Minor, and the thousands of other volunteers in Victorian England who contributed to the OED. The Professor and the Madman is a remarkable look at what is undoubtedly one of history's most phenomenal achievements.

The Professor and the Madman is available at Amazon.com.

One of the frustrating aspects of history is that so many important works of history are mammoth tomes. It's true that a well-written work of history is a delight to read whether it's 250 pages or 750 pages, but one must admit that several worthy books remain on the shelf because they are hefty enough to damage toes when dropped. Sure, the reader might say, I *want* to read Shelby Foote's magisterial three-volume history of the American Civil War, and I know I'll be a better person for it - but do I want to dedicate the next six months of my life to it?

If you know anyone who cannot get over the hurdle of reading history for this reason, I wholeheartedly recommend Simon Winchester's "The Professor and the Madman." This book focuses on an obvious yet often-forgotten point - that the Oxford English Dictionary is one of the greatest literary achievements in the last two hundred years. Thanks to the lifelong dedication of a number of scholars, both professional and amateur, Oxford now has the title to the most important reference book ever published.

What makes this story fascinating - and indeed shocking - is that the book's top contributor was a lonely American Civil War veteran, living out his sad life in a British asylum after killing an innocent British civilian.

Winchester writes this too-improbable-to-be-believed story with the verve and dedication it warrants. One might imagine that a book about the creating of a dictionary would be the dreariest thing imaginable, but not so. Just like David McCullough brought the building of the Brooklyn Bridge to enchanting life with "The Great Bridge," Winchester injects fire and gusto into this tale of wordsmiths and eccentrics.

He does so with a careful eye for what is critical to the story and what could safely be cut - this book clocks in at a mere 220-odd pages! For an effort that took decades to complete, producing such a lean book is a testament to Winchester's eye for detail and understanding of what makes a great story.

I will issue no spoilers here, other than to point out that this is a sad tale of triumph - and would make for one heck of a movie.

American civil war veteran W.C. Minor, physician and gentleman, plays a notable role in the creation of the most comprehensive documentation of the English language ever produced: the Oxford English Dictionary. Over the course of many years, Minor was single-handedly responsible for making thousands of citations for word usage to be included in the dictionary. The quantity of his solo contributions to the OED effort are notable enough, but what makes his story worthy of a book-length exploration by Simon Winchester is the fact that Minor was criminally insane. He wasn't an ordinary criminal per se, but his madness had led him to murder a British citizen while in a delusional fit. The British government, finding Minor incapable of standing trial by reason of insanity, sentenced him to permanent residence in an asylum. Minor's incarceration provided him with ample time to do just the kind of methodical word investigation that the OED's lexicographers were asking of its volunteer research force. Years passed before the remote editors of the OED ever discovered the truth of Minor's identity.

That's pretty much the hook. There's not an enormous amount of meat to this tale, but its history is just odd enough to sustain Winchester's relatively short book.

The tale of W.C. Minor is one so entertaining and so unlikely that it simply needs to be told. Unfortunately, the stories which comprise the remainder of The Professor and the Madman are not nearly as captivating. In particular, the painstakingly detailed history of lexicography will likely appeal to those who hold a doctorate degree in English, but the casual reader may find these chapters to be a bit soporific. Frankly, when reading this book you will find yourself tempted to skip over the chapters about James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary to the more intriguing chapters about Dr. Minor.

The author's writing style does little to remedy the languor produced by certain sections of the book. Specifically, it appears as though Winchester perceives his audience as suffering from anterograde amnesia. Not only does he repeat certain parts of the book (never the interesting ones) ad nauseam, but the author continues to foreshadow events long after the reader is already aware of them. In this respect, The Professor and the Madman qualifies as a good story, while falling short of being good literature.

Fortunately, The Professor and the Madman is self-aware; throughout the story it is made evident that it is not the book that Winchester set out to write. Intent upon chronicling merely the origins of the O.E.D., Winchester uncovered the story of W.C. Minor and subsequently changed the entire structure of his narrative. The author concedes that the life of Dr. Minor is too compelling to be confined to a single chapter, yet not quite substantive enough to suffice as its own volume. Thus, the patchwork storytelling of The Professor and The Madman makes for a distinctly heterogeneous novel which lacks the mellifluousness of a complete literary experience. Nonetheless, Winchester recognized a fantastic true story when he saw one. That being said, the minor faults of this book can be forgiven in light of the fascinating, albeit near chimerical, tale of W.C. Minor--it's simply that good.

Bottom line: A valuable read for fans of the English language and an entertaining human interest story for everyone else.

"The Professor and the Madman" examines the relationship between Sir James Murray, editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and Dr. William Minor, who contributed an extraordinary number of quotations to the OED. James Murray was a Scottish autodidact who became associated with the OED through his participation in the Philological Society. William Minor was a surgeon from a wealthy American family who had served the Union in the Civil War. He was one of many educated amateurs to respond to Murray's request for volunteers to read volumes of English literature in search of illustrative quotations. The unusual thing about Minor's relationship with the OED project was that he was confined to Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane at the time.

Minor was an apparent paranoid schizophrenic who had shot a man in 1871 while in the throes of a paranoid delusion. He was found "not guilty by reason of insanity" and confined to Broadmoor indefinitely. There, he collected a private library in his rooms and became one of the OED's most valuable volunteers, as he could be relied on for a good quote when the editors most needed one. Minor created a word index and made an effort to stay on top of the vocabulary that the OED's editors were working on currently. James Murray and his staff worked at the seemingly insurmountable task of defining and illustrating every nuance of every word in the English language from a 15x50-foot shed, called the Scriptorium, behind his Oxford home.

The two men developed a friendship that lasted 20 years. Simon Winchester takes advantage of recently discovered letters by Murray to shed more light on the relationship than was possible in the past. He debunks the mythology surrounding their first meeting. James Murray and William Minor are interesting people who participated in one of the world's greatest achievements in scholarship, awe-inspiring in its scope to this day. But "The Professor and the Madman" too often speculates without basis as to its characters' motives and takes a flippant tone. It is full of filler, such as a lengthy rumination on Shakespeare's inability to consult a dictionary. It doesn't get around to the creation of the OED until the second half, which is better than the first half. But, all told, not well-written.

"The Professor and the Madman" is a fascinating story made even more so by the fact it is true. I recommend it to anyone interested in the history of the English language.

I had read the author's book about the volcano Krakatoa, (Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (P.S.)) and had enjoyed that very much, so when I found this one, I purchased it without reservations. The author's style is very readable; I managed to get through it in a little over a day's reading. His descriptions of people, places and events is very vivid, putting the reader "right there."

The Professor and the Madman is probably one of the most intriguing personal tales I've read in a long time. Simon Winchester, although not trained as an historian, has done a marvelous job of pulling together diverse sources in order to create a portrait of a very troubled person who nevertheless managed to make a major contribution to society. And this despite his permanent residence in a mental institution in England for murder.

The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary is also described in detail. In fact the book is something of the biography of a dictionary. The author goes into great detail about the original plans for the book--actually a large collection of mega-folios--and how it evolved under different directors. The undertaking was immense, involved, and well deserving of this public recognition. I had no idea that the book, so often seen in a very abbreviated, single, desk-sized volume, was so vast an undertaking as it is. Apparently each word of the English language is not only described and properly spelled, all its meanings are listed with the first literary use of each, and its etymology. Amazing.

The story of Dr. Minor is poignant but inspiring. I had heard the name before, mentioned as a possible identity of the Ripper Murderer, an attribution which I much doubt after reading this author's description of the man and his behavior. While the Ripper Murders seem to be the product of a deranged mind--that of a psychopath--they don't suggest someone delusional and "not together." Minor's service as a Civil War battlefield surgeon and the effect those experiences seem to have produced is far more likely to have exacerbated an underlying psychosis, even an inherited propensity for schizophrenia. That type of diagnosis would make very unlikely the premeditated murder of the type the Ripper cases are described as having been. Crazy he may have been, a murder as well, but probably not a serial killer. A diagnosis of schizophrenia would certainly explain Dr. Minor's intense focus on minutia and his great care in researching individual words to the nth degree. In short, it seems possible that the man had found a way of preventing further outbursts that had caused him to harm another person, of keeping himself safe from personal harm, and a useful purpose to which to put his undoubted intellect (many who suffer schizophenia are extremely gifted). More importantly he had found a way to keep himself focused away from his delusions (and probable hallucinations) and on a socially useful project that gave him a great deal of personal satisfaction and a sense of purpose without which his disorder might have worsened far more rapidly than it actually did. He was a soundly functioning person for most of his surprisingly long life (85), until the disorder he suffered became incapacitating. He died in his sleep in 1920 at his home on the banks of the Connecticut River, to whence he had been released late in life, it having been determined that he was no longer a danger to others.


A book with all the interest of a mystery.

For most of us, a dictionary is a tool that we take for granted. In The Professor and the Madman, the author recounts the fascinating history that leads to the creation of the first dictionary, including the contributions of a mysterious individual who lived much of his adult life in an English Insane Asylum. This well written book will keep you on the edge of your seat as effectively as any good murder mystery!

I for one, think this would be an excellent movie. This book really shows the power of the human endeavor. Although there were things that I think should have been explored further, the book deals simultaneously with two fascinating topics. The making of the Oxford Dictionary, and archaic psychiatry and its surrounding institutions. Great read.

This is the true story of the preparation of the first edition of the "Oxford Dictionary of the English Language". It is fascinating and somewhat disturbing at the same time. I have given it to several people after reading it. They have all read and enjoyed it. It's not for everyone, it can be tedious in places.

I was shopping with my sister who loves mysteries so when she saw "Madman" in the title she scooped it up. When she saw "Oxford English Dictionary" she went to put the book down, however I quickly intercepted because that is when I became interested. I have to confess I am a speech language pathologist so I do have a sweet relationship with words...but this is a fascinating story with many threads including madness, genius, smatterings of civil war history, Victorian psychiatry, English culture, friendship, and words.

I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy reading this non-fiction account. Unlike with most non-fiction I read these days, I did not feel distracted by a compulsion to note every detail or quote passages repeatedly for my own writing. This meant I was immersed much of the time. Amazing to see the OED took not the six years of Samuel Johnson and friends on their first attempt at a dictionary in the 1700s, but seventy years to be completed, finally published in the 1930s. I loved the brilliant idea of the physician, the titular madman, who while in an asylum coded and indexed lists of every word he came across while reading book after book in his cell.
His ingenious idea was to not bother transcribing any sentences until he found out what word the editors were working on; only then he'd consult his index, find pages with the word, and select the best sentence he found to write on a quotation slip and send it to the OED Scriptorium in Oxford. Words ranged from two-letters to the "polysyllabic sesquipedalianism" of giants. The whole is a great contrast to Derrida's philosophy of how language only ever refers to itself, as the author describes "it was the words that were the truest monument, and even more profoundly, the very entities that those words defined." I'm glad this read's entity, and entirety, managed to be both profound and thoroughly enjoyable.
Grade: B+.

Part mystery, part suspense, part gripping history lesson, this was a revealing and surprising look at how the OED was made. It was a long labor of love and groundbreaking in it's organization. And how revealing that one of its chief contributors was criminally insane. But that's only half the story, the other half is about the perhaps equally as inexplicable drive of the "professor" in bringing about this astounding accomplishment. This is a great book for history buffs.

The prompt for writing a quick review of this book is that I just started a third title by the same author, Simon Winchester, The Crack at the Edge of the World, and couldn't help but remember with fondness - yes, I used the word 'fondness' in regard to reading a book about how a dictionary was written - when I read The Professor and the Madman. Winchester is to my knowledge the developer and foremost practitioner of an immensely entertaining historical-narrative literary style whereby he lures us into turning page after page (rapidly) of a history book by telling a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story that reads like pulp fiction, and yes, which is set within a larger historical context and moment. Erik Larson followed the pattern in Devil in the White City , introducing us to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and how it changed the history of America through the lurid tale of a serial killer who was as big as Jack the Ripper before Jack found his first victim. In some parallel ways, Sebastian Junger employed this model, telling us about seemingly mundane things - the deep sea fishing industry, the physics of waves, the types of North Atlantic storms, and a little of the history of Gloucester, Massachusetts - through the sensational story of the crew of the Andrea Gail in his book The Perfect Storm, even better known for the George Clooney movie.

What is the historical setting and importance of the Professor and the Madman? The writing of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), of course. Now, without making any claims of being an academic, I must admit that topic kind of, sort of interested me anyway. I like the history of words and their definitions. But enough to read a book? I'm not sure. Even if it's less than 300 pages? Still not sure. It may never have reached the top of the stack. But even if you aren't that interested in what made the OED the finest reference work of its day - and perhaps the greatest reference ever created - the story of Dr. Charles Minor, the man who contributed thousands of entries, all painstakingly researched and neatly written from his home in Crowthorne, England, just 50 miles from Oxford, just might hook you.

What tied Minor to the OED and made his role so remarkable? Was it that he was an American creating something so peculiarly British? Nope. There was no snobbery as a sub theme. That he was a veteran of the Civil War, where he was surgeon for the troops of the North? Interesting, but not interesting enough to bring a dictionary to life. Was it that he maintained a long distance relationship with Professor James Murray - strictly by correspondence - for decades, despite numerous invitations from Murray to attend fundraising dinners or just stop by the office to meet due to his prolific 10 thousand entries? Not even close. Was it that he thought Irishmen were ... and that one night he went out and ... and because of that he ended up living in ... ? Yes. Yes. And yes.

I don't want to spoil the book for someone wants to know why it took 70 years to create the OED - Murray worked on it for 40 of those years but died before it was released - which contained almost 2 million quotations that helped define more than 400 thousand words. As an aside to those who love words and where they came from, one of the challenges of completing this monumental masterpiece was the stated goal that the OED would provide literary quotations, from oldest to most recent, to illustrate each word's first usage, evolution, and current definitions. Is it any wonder that the publisher had London book sellers place advertising tracts in the books they sold to solicit research help from the general population?

But back to Minor. I guess since I've already let you know that Murray was the professor, it is safe to reveal that Minor was the madman. When Murray finally insisted that he must meet the good doctor face-to-face out of respect for his unequaled contributions to the OED- and yes, if Minor wouldn't leave his home and travel to Oxford, he would come to him - you can imagine the shock he must have felt to show up at the front door and discover Minor was an insane murderer living at the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

Who knows? Let this book rise to the top of the stack beside your nightstand and you might be shocked to discover yourself enjoying a scintillating read about the history of a dictionary!

This very interesting biography gives more than just the dry facts. I was fascinated to learn about how the OED was actually created. Prior to reading this book, I had always taken dictionaries for granted, never giving a thought to how the words are chosen and defined. I was amazed at the amount of volunteer assistance that was offered and used for this enormous undertaking.

OK, so I am a lingui file, but honestly, this book reads like a victorian novel and illuminates the birth of our shared understanding of English.
Now, more so than ever before, thanks to the Professor and the Madman of the title, we are able to understand every nuance of the language we call our native tongue.
Thanks to Winchester, we are able to understand the nuances of the creation of our most comprehensive lexicon.
A great read, even if you hold our language to be suspect (or perhaps especially if...)

There aren't enough words in the Oxford English Dictionary to describe my loathing for this book. It is constantly being recommended to me, because I apparently fit the stereotype of someone who would like it(I have an English degree, I enjoy reading, and I am a bit of a language maven). As someone who loves books, I am usually offended when others complain that a book is "boring." Having said that, my main criticism with The Professor and the Madman is that it is painfully and shockingly ... boring. The only reason I was able to finish this book is that I was trapped in a cabin during a snowstorm. My options were to either read this book or stare out into a blank white landscape.

I should have stared into the landscape. A more accurate title would have been: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Letters Being Exchanged, Bureaucracy, and Conversations About Minutiae.

The fascinating and poignant story of the Oxford English Dictionary and two similar, yet very different in circumstance, men whose lives would likely never have crossed except for their work on the OED. Although I had heard the story of the 'lunatic American doctor' who contributed reams of information for the OED, I still found myself riveted to the sad story (and occasional salacious detail in my opinion). As a word geek myself, I have a love/hate affair with dictionaries and yes, there are times when I just sit down and read a few pages. The incredible undertaking and vast scope of the project is obvious when you view the dictionary itself in its multiple-volume splendor, but I tend to forget that most Americans have likely never actually seen one in person. So of course, I found the story of the dictionary itself interesting and worthwhile reading, but combined with the inexplicable mystery of how and why the 'madman' was in a situation that enabled him to contribute so much...it just boggles the mind. "The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchester is well worth your time and a fun, educational read.

I will never take a dictionary for granted again. The effort that went into the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary in Victorian England, long before the days of computers, was a cumbersome and manual process that took decades. Professor James Murray is a fascinating character and his passion for words and their etymology is admirable. But the interesting facet of this story is that of Dr. W.C. Minor. The creators of the dictionary readily accepted his significant contributions, despite his confinement to an insane asylum. Minor's paranoia and delusions are masochistic and Winchester presents his madness in a disturbingly gripping way. But at the heart of this book is the love of words that Murray and Minor share. It was an extremely intriguing tale of the history and creation of one of the definitive works of the English language.

THIS REVIEW REFERS TO THE UNABRIDGED AUDIO VERSION:

Before reading (well, listening to) this book, I would have found it difficult to believe that the story of the making of a dictionary could be interesting! But it is. It's full of fascinating, if sometimes sad, characters as well as a wealth of information about how the greatest dictionary in the English language came to be (that story, in itself, is amazing).

The author's use of language is superb and -- even more astounding -- he reads the book as well as any professional reader (a rare talent!). I simply loved this book!

I've already read Winchester's book "The Map That Changed the World," and I can't wait to read ALL his books.

I grabbed this one off the public library shelf on a whim. It looked like it might be really boring but as I was due in my reading regimen (3 books/week -- 2 fiction, one non-fiction) for a non-fiction read, this one seemed at least by its cover information to be informative.

What a rare and pleasant surprise! This book reads like a great fiction novel (and is a poster case that truth is stranger than fiction.) It's the story of James Murray, the editor of the original Oxford Dictionary, and his unending efforts to complete it. The parallel story is that of one of his notable contributors... Dr. William Minor, a convicted lunatic living in Broadmoor.

Of course Murray didn't realize that his most active and brilliant contibutor was completely insane and it's fortunate that he did not know this from the start because Dr. Minor ultimately made a huge contribution to this renowned work.

In any case, don't be put off by the subject matter. This is one of those rare books that nearly anyone would enjoy. It would also make a nice gift.

Highly recommended!

(This review is for the unabridged audio book, read by the author, Simon Winchester).

This is the tale of how the greatest and most definitive dictionary in the English language came to be, thanks to the unlikely crossing of paths between a British scholar and an American who was committed to a mental asylum. While the topic of dictionary-making may seem dull, this book weaves a tale of violence, the American Civil War, insanity, murder and Victorian England's sensibilities in a way that oddly makes for a very compelling read.

This being the very first audio book I've ever listened to, I have to say that it was an excellent way to spend a long-distance trip by car. And it's a fairly short "read" - as it only takes up 7 1/2 hours over the span of 6 discs (short by audio book standards).

The author has a mellifluous English accent that propels the story forward, while at the same time gently reminding the reader that most of the action in the story takes place in late-19th and early 20th century Britain (with large detours in the U.S. and occasionally elsewhere).

I highly recommend this book for anyone who has a remote interest in the etymology of words, reading or even dictionaries.

It is an interesting book, explaining how the Oxford English Dictionary was put together by volunteers supplying definitions and quotes for every word in the English language. In the back of the book is a call for additional volunteers to work on keeping the dictionary current! The man who made the largest number of contributions was Captain William Chester Minor, late of the United States Army, whose residence at the time he was making contributions was Broadmoor Asylum for the criminally Insane, Crowthorne, Berkshire. He was committed to Broadmoor for the murder of George Merrett in February 1872. Captain Minor suffered from what today would be diagnosed as Schizophrenia - although his problem was not diagnosed until 18 November 1918 after the British government formally returned the aged Civil War captain to the United States Army. Interestingly, the author makes the statement that schizophrenia, then called dementia praecox, is early onset Alzheimer's, or at least it was so believed in 1918.

Though it was written before "The Meaning of Everything" it could easily serve as a chapter or appendix to the book. Winchester does a superb job of telling both the early history of the OED while at the same time setting down the 'odd' collaboration between Professor JAH Murray (of Oxford) and the Madman Dr. WC Minor (or the Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum). Their relationship was to span forty years and affect the OED in a way that no other relationship did.

Minor (who was an American Doctor and Civil War Veteran) had come to England to "try and get his head straight" after the horrors he saw during the Civil War. While in England he murders an innocent man and is sent to the 'Lunatic Asylum' for the rest of his life. While there he gets involved with the creation of the OED by sending in slips that demarcate word meanings and usage. His work (voluntary) is so specific and exact that he is asked by Murray to 'find' citations for certain words and to also look for earlier usages and meanings.

Murray finally meets Minor after seven years of correspondence an is amazed at the work this so called 'lunatic' has been able to send into the OED over a period of years. They never become what you would call 'fast friends' but do establish a corresponding association that is both respected and admired by all those who work on the OED.

I listened to this book on CD and found Winchester's reading of his own book to heighten the enjoyment of it. Knowing when to put emphasis on the proper parts of the book to specifically call your attention to a passage or section, made the book thoroughly enjoyabale.

Zeb Kantrowitz

The first time that I had ever heard about the Oxford English Dictionary, I was a freshman at Bryn Mawr-- straight from the sticks. I had tested out of needing to take the freshman English classes, and had plunged straightaway into classes that were aimed at upper classman. While eventually that turned out to be fine, my very first class was with a peach of a gentleman who clearly found me an unlettered barbarian who should have been sent back to the freshman comp classes-- or even worse. I was not only an unlettered barbarian, but a *stubborn* unlettered barbarian and we fought about absolutely everything. A little bit over midway through the semester, he marked me down on a paper because I used the word "meld". He scribbled in the margin: "Not a word!" Furious, I went to the library and came back with a popular dictionary and I held the entry for "meld" under his nose during his office hours. He icily slammed the book shut and glared at me. "If it is not in the Oxford English Dictionary," he said, "it is not a word!"

That began my lifelong love-hate relationship with the OED. At least with the idea of the OED. I've somehow never managed to acquire my own copy. (I keep telling B. that I'd love one for my birthday, but I'm pretty sure that he doesn't believe that I'm serious.) But still, The Professor and the Madman was kind of a natural for me. People have been recommending it to me ever since it appeared; I've had several offers to lend it to me (I don't borrow books); I've had it regularly suggested on Amazon. I finally picked up my own copy second-hand. And now, reader, I've finally read the book.

And-- honestly-- it's a little bit anticlimactic. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice book. It's one of these new breed of nonfiction books that read mostly like magazine articles writ large. Winchester delivers a very good magazine article writ large. It is surely entertaining, very interesting, decently written and a good story. What else could you want?

I would have *perhaps* wanted a little more about the history of the Dictionary and a little bit less about Minor. But this isn't a fair remark, as that was the subject of the book. But that would have added more substance, and if I have a criticism it is surely that the book is not very substantial.

Know someone who loves words? This is probably an excellent gift. It's unlikely to be controversial, and they will probably get a kick out of it. Do not expect too much, and you will not be disappointed.

(I really appreciated, by the way, that Winchester included a list of suggestions for further reading. I will definitely be following some of those up.)

Absent the anti-Christian bias of his geological disaster books, Winchester writes a very good tale about a fascinating sidebar of history during the compilation of the OED. The madman was an American military surgeon (son of missionaries to Sri Lanka!) who served in the Union army during the Civil War, whose slow spiral to insanity culminated in the shooting of an innocent man in London 15 years later. The professor was the editor of the OED who corresponded with the madman for 20 years at the asylum outside London where he made a full-time career of volunteering word lists and quotes to the OED editorial team.

How their histories shadowed and paths crossed, and how the OED came to be, make for a great story. The book was lavishly praised and worthily so, reading like a psychological thriller that can't be put down. I literally read through this in less than 24 hours in just a few sittings.

Many academics and scholars border on creative madness, take Kierkegaard and Nietzsche for example. This book is marvellous reading since the dull subject of dictionary making is enlivened by eccentric personalities and mental disturbance. It reveals how a dictionary as prestigious as the Oxford English Dictionary was put together. Any author who can make such a dry subject as exciting as a murder mystery deserves a good deal of credit and acclaim.

There is a certain "Did you know..." factor about the "new" genre of creative nonfiction: we read it for both the informative componenet, and the fact that quite a bit of history is, well, interesting. Did you know, for example, that the main contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary was insane?

Dr. W.C. Minor was an American soldier in the Civil War, who later moved to England, where he wound up shooting a man. He was placed in an asylum (not the greatest of places in those days), where he was given a few more perks than the other inmates, simply because he was non-violent (despite the reason for his incarceration) and intelligent. One day, he happened to come across an advertisement: Professor James Murray, along with an elite group of gentlemen, was creating the single-greatest compilation of the English language ever conceived. Minor, with nothing but time on his hands, decided to pitch in. Over ten-thousand words later, Minor was the single-greatest contributor to the single-greatest dictionary ever created.

It is a compelling, surprising story, told in Winchester's usual novel-meets-nonfiction style. While I enjoy a good piece of creative nonfiction, I find myself time and time again returning to Winchester's work not necessarily because of the topic, but because I enjoy his style so much. (It just so happens he chooses interesting topics to write upon.) The "P.S." section of this book, as with the others, doesn't offer too much, though there is an intriguing little section: Winchester's favorite words from the OED. Still, you'll purchase "The Professor and the Madman" for the story itself--and it's a doozy. True, too. Funny, how facts can sometimes be more interesting--and harder to believe--than fiction.

Simon Winchester has come up with a nifty little tale of the making of the OED. It's a fun little gem from history, and worth the read. My only complaints are: the book would have been more interesting if he had included some pictures, and the tale itself is pretty small. The publisher makes up for this by using large type, double spaced, with wide paragraph separation. But it's still a footnote in history, and you can't hide that fact.

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.