The professor and the madman : a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English dictionary
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
New York : HarperCollins Publishers, [1998].
ISBN
0060175966, 9780060175962
Lexile measure
1330L
Appears on list
Status
St. Charles Public Library District - Adult Nonfiction
423 WIN
1 available

Description

Loading Description...

Also in this Series

Checking series information...

Copies

LocationCall NumberStatus
St. Charles Public Library District - Adult Nonfiction423 WINOn Shelf
LocationCall NumberStatus
Bensenville Community Public Library District - Nonfiction423 WINOn Shelf
Bloomingdale Public Library - Nonfiction423 WINOn Shelf
Bridgeview Public Library - Stacks423 WINOn Shelf
Calumet Park Public Library - Stacks423 WINOn Shelf
Chicago Ridge Public Library - Stacks423 WINOn Shelf
Show All Copies

More Like This

Loading more titles like this title...

Other Editions and Formats

More Details

Published
New York : HarperCollins Publishers, [1998].
Format
Book
Physical Desc
xi, 242 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Language
English
ISBN
0060175966, 9780060175962
Lexile measure
1330

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-242).
Description
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.
Target Audience
1330L,Lexile

Reviews from GoodReads

Loading GoodReads Reviews.

Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Winchester, S. (1998). The professor and the madman: a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English dictionary (First edition.). HarperCollins Publishers.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Winchester, Simon. 1998. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. HarperCollins Publishers.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary HarperCollins Publishers, 1998.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary First edition., HarperCollins Publishers, 1998.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

Staff View

Loading Staff View.