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The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary cover

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

Simon Winchester

0

awards won

4

score

#2595 of 3,809 books · #855 in History

Shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction (1998).

The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W.C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

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Publisher
Thorndike Press
ISBN-13
9780783885001
Genre
History
Topics
Oxford English DictionaryMental illnessLexicography

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