The Professor and the Madman

Posted on 20 November 2017 by Simon Winchester

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary and literary history The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr W C Minor, had submitted than ten thousand When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light Dr Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane. Free Read eBook The Professor and the Madman author Simon Winchester – kino-fada.fr for each word, there should be sentences that show the twists and turns of meanings the way almost every word slips in its silvery, fishlike way, weaving this way and that, adding subtleties of nuance to itself, and then perhaps shedding them as public mood dictates Herbert Coleridge whose brilliant life was too short.I was driving into work the other day thinking about Herbert Coleridge and realized that I might possibly be the only person on the planet driving to work thinking about Her for each word, there should be sentences that show the twists and turns of meanings the way almost every word slips in its silvery, fishlike way, weaving this way and that, adding subtleties of nuance t...As a completely fledged bibliopsychotic and an ever striving to be cunning linguist , I was all aquiver with anticipation to bury my face in this purported history of the Oxford English Dictionary OED Alas, despite being well written and thoroughly researched, I m having to fake it a bit to give this a full 3 stars My primary joy dampening problem with the book s arrangement was the dearth of page time given to what I see as the most fascinating aspect of the story the actual nuts and bolts As a completely fledged bibliopsychotic and an ever striving to be cunning linguist , I was all aquiver with anticipation to bury my face in this purported history of the Oxford English Dictionary OED Alas, despite being well written and thoroughly researched, I m having to fake it a bit to give this a full 3 stars My primary joy dampening problem with the book s arrangement was the dearth of page time given to what I see as the most fascinating aspect of the story the actual nuts and bolts of putting together the OED and the history of etymological word cataloging Unfortunately, this element only makes up about 20% to 25% of the book with the majority devoted to the life stories of Professor James Murray, head of the OED project, and Dr W.C Minor, a criminally insane murderer This was a disappointing use of subject matter allocation Most of the biographical portion is devoted to Dr Minor who, admittedly,...Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend Eloquent writing and the talented vocal work of narrator Simon Jones make this brief account of one of the greatest known editors of the OED and his longtime collaborator a man who conducted his research fr...People tend to juxtapose the idea of reading the dictionary with other activities as a means of underscoring how incredibly uninteresting and undesirable those other activities are For example I have to interact with Sean today UGH I d much rather read the dictionary This is an effective comparison for good reason Look, I love words as much as the next guy, but even I find reading the dictionary only slightlyfun than reading the phone book What s a phone book ask all the millenni People tend to juxtapose the idea of reading the dictionary with other activities as a means of underscoring how incredibly uninteresting and undesirable those other activities are For example I have to interact with Sean today UGH I d much rather read the dictionary This is an effective ...Professor James Murray was one of the primary editors of the Oxford English Dictionary OED Dr Chester Minor, was one of the primary contributors to the massive project But Murray did not know that Minor was an inmate in an insane asylum Simon Winchester image from Andersons Bookshop The book tells their separate stories, how Murray rose to the prominence necessary to land this major position, how Minor emerged from a troubled, if well to do youth to commit a heinous and add...A man goes insane, shoots another man to death and then helps write one of the first complete dictionaries What an odd way to enter the academic world And believe it or not, those aren t even spoilers Simon Winchester gives us all that right in the title of his surprisingly riveting read The Professor and the Madman A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.The idea of reading a book on the creation of a dictionary only sounded mildly interesting In the hands A man goes insane, shoots another man to death and then helps write one of the first complete dictionaries What an odd way to enter the acad...If you know me personally or almost personally, then you should be aware that I am quite mad I have a heavy obsession with the alphabet, with inventing bizarre systems that rule just about anything in my life and catalouging things It is quite obvious that a book about a lunatic and creating Oxford English Dictionary would be a winner with me And it was.How...This is a perfect example of a book that I wish had been written by David McCullough I gave it three stars based primarily on potential the story itself was very interesting the writing waslike 2 stars I cannot believe this man has been able to make his living as a writer on two continents His main problem was being redundant, giving the general impression that his target audience was not too bright fifth graders I don t need every little coincidence and connection pointed out 5 time This is a perfect example of a book that I wish had been written by David McCullough I gave it three stars based primarily on potential the story itself was very interesting the writing waslike 2 stars I cannot believe this man has been able to make his living as a writer on two continents His main problem was being redundant, giving the general impression that his target audience was not too bright fifth graders I don t need every little coincidence and connection pointed out 5 times He also seemed to forget where he was headed from time to time, and in going from storyline to...I have been meaning to read this book for years I couldn t even tell you when I first saw it or heard about it and thought it would be a good idea to read Then I saw a copy in a bookshop that was going cheap and bought it on my way to my mother s place I showed it to her and then lent it to her She told me she enjoyed it so that made me keen to read it too That was a couple of years ago as you see, I was in no rush I think mum even lent it to my sister to read This was a remarkable b I have been meaning to read this book for years I couldn t even tell you when I first saw it or heard about it and thought it would be a good idea to read Then I saw a copy in a bookshop that was going cheap and bought it on my way to my mother s place I showed it to her and then lent it to her She told me she enjoyed it so that made me keen to read it too That was a couple of years ago as you see, I was in no rush I think mum even lent it to my sister to read This was a remarkable book It might have been a book that didn t quite seem to know how to end but I even liked that about it, perhaps because I was so delighted by it that I wasn t sure I wanted it to end Winchester is a true story teller He does explain an awful lot of what might appear to be extraneous material, but I found all of this utterly fascinating anyway, so wasn t put off in the least The book smashes tog...Calling all bibliophiles Have you ever wondered how that magnificent beast, the 20 volume Oxford English Dictionary OED , came into being Well, this is the book for you.Simon Winchester weaves together the story of two men in Victorian England one was Professor James Murray, who was editing what was to become the definitive work on...

English
20 November 2017

Simon Winchester