The Professor and the Madman

by Simon Winchester

Hardcover, 1998




MJF Books (1998)


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.… (more)

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LibraryThing member Smiler69


That quote alone earned the book an extra half star.
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LibraryThing member kmstock
A very interesting story about the creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary. Of particular interest (in my view) was the method in which members of the public read various books and collected quotations and sent them in, so it was an example of what we now call crowd-sourcing for a very traditional application. The story focuses around a surgeon, who has various adventures and then goes insane. He is one of the biggest contributors to the dictionary. I found the story both sad and heart-warming - well worth a read.… (more)
LibraryThing member eleanor_eader
There's a fascinating story here, but it's a little over-told for the sake of adding drama and pathos to the history of the OED; it's a compelling enough tale without the 'omg, and THEN guess what' that the author tries -needlessly - to inject into the writing. Winchester's real strength is delivering history and biography in an accessible manner, having a keen sense for important detail and rich seems of interest; where he lets the reader down is in assuming we will not realise these things for ourselves, but must be pointed at them repeatedly.

That said, for anyone who does not already know the stories that are intertwined with the collaboration and creation of the largest, most authoritative, and first complete collection of English words (and who has any interest in lexicography at all) will find this a very interesting read.
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LibraryThing member NielsenGW
One of the most productive relationships in the history of modern dictionary making began with a murder. On February 17, 1872, William Chester Minor, an ex-patriated Civil war surgeon, in a schizophrenic rage, gunned down George Merritt in London’s Lambeth slum. He was tried, found not guilty by reason of insanity, and sent to Broadmoor Asylum. It was there that he found a measure of mental solace in a most unusual endeavor. Simon Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman details what happened next.

In the late 19th century, there was a push to create a wondrous new reference book: a complete historical dictionary of the English language. It would use written works as its basis for both spelling and usage. This “New English Dictionary” was a gargantuan task. After a few fits and starts with different editors, James Murray became the project’s caretaker and secured the Oxford University Press as its publisher in 1878. He put out a call to readers and amateur word sleuths across the country to send in interesting, different, and obscure usages of words and their sources. In just four years’ time, he had 3.5 million quotation slips.

Minor, sitting alone at Broadmoor, came upon the public appeal through the booksellers he regularly ordered from and began to catalog everything he could find. He kept a dutiful organization system, sending in thousands of quotations over the course of his life. Minor and Murray met in person only once, and there are no notes from that day, but the work each did for the preservation of language cannot be dismissed. With Minor’s help (and the help of many others), the dictionary was issued in full in 1928.

This is one of my favorite books ever. It would be on my Desert Island Top Ten list. Sure, Winchester is a little stingy with the footnotes and there’s no index, but that’s not his style. He’s out to prove that history is replete with interesting tales of people who contributed to society in major and unusual ways. Minor eventually deteriorated mentally and physically, but his work is worthy of celebration. His indefatigable efforts helped make the OED into a powerhouse in the dictionary community. Winchester’s prose is breezy and charming. There are probably only a few people in the world who can make lexicography exciting, and he’s one of them. If you get a chance, check this one out. You won’t regret it.
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LibraryThing member manque
So terrible I could not finish it. What a shame--although the story itself is fascinating, and of tremendous interest to me, unfortunately the way this particular author bungles the telling takes all the fun out of the discovery. In particular, the author's grating, excessively patronizing tone, together with the rather predictable plotting and almost laughably amateurish attempts at creating suspense, made this book literally unreadable (one could say unbearable) for me.… (more)
LibraryThing member allgenresbookworm
Simon Winchester is not a linear writer. Instead, he likes to weave back and forth from the main story to different background stories that do end up coming back to the main story...eventually. What I found fascinating was the background story of two men that were geniuses that come from opposite backgrounds and end up having a twenty year friendship. At times I felt bogged down and this is not a book to be read in a week end.

"I am nobody, treat me as a solar myth, or an echo, or an irrational quantity, or ignore me altogether". Throughout the book, it is clear we can not ignore a man like James Murray. He left school at the age of fourteen, became self taught through numerous books, tried to teach Latin to cows, he was fluent in several languages including many dead languages, he taught himself geology, biology, entomology, and because of his love for words among being a very learned man, was instrumental in creating the greatest dictionary of our time.

William Chester Minor was also a genius but was also insane. Throughout the book, we get to see a background of his life growing up, what he saw as a doctor in the Civil War during a battle called "The Wilderness". Perhaps this is what threw him over the edge into insanity, although I would guess that it was a perfect storm of circumstances throughout his life that drove him over the edge into insanity, perhaps it was in his mind all along.

What I found fascinating about this book was the history of the dictionaries before the OED. I have learned so many things in this book of 242 pages that seemed more like an 800 page book. The Irish who fought in the Civil War (I have a new appreciation for the Irish and a better understanding of why so many deserted), Sri Lanka, the history of the dictionary, lexicography, branding in the civil war...the list goes on and on.

It is a book I can only read once, however it is a book that I own so I can go back to it for reference from time to time. I am in awe of the men and women who volunteered their time, James Murray, William Minor and the men who came before them who were the stepping stones before the OED. The OED took seventy years to complete! For those that love words, love history, love the OED, this book is for you!
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LibraryThing member ellen.w
Fascinating story, but a bit wandering, and the author's tendency to freely make stuff up (like the theory that the subject had an affair with his victim's wife, which even the author admits is based on zero evidence) left a bad taste in my mouth.
LibraryThing member AMQS
This was a fun and fascinating non fiction read. The Oxford English Dictionary, or OED, was and is a massive, titanic catalog of the English language -- one reviewer said it essentially is the English language. Its creation took place long before computers, obviously, but also before real, comprehensive dictionaries. The scope of the project is breathtaking: the editors wanted an exhaustive catalog of every word ever used, no matter how obscure or obsolete. Each entry included etymological information of the word, and supporting quotations from writings that showed exact usage and varying nuance. Pronunciation was hotly debated, and concise definitions proved challenging. The editors realized this massive undertaking would require the efforts of a small army of volunteers who would read, quote, cross-index, and define any and all words they could find, ideally in a systematic way via defined historical intervals. Scores of volunteers sent in contributions, but one of the most dedicated and prolific contributors, with tens of thousands of entries, was Dr. William Minor, an American Civil War veteran long committed to the The Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. The book weaves together the story of the OED's creation with the personal histories and eventual friendship of Dr. Minor and Professor James Murray, the OED's chief editor. I only wish the book had flowed a bit better -- it jumped about a lot chronologically, and had other execution challenges, but all in all, it was a good read.… (more)
LibraryThing member BradKautz
What is the likelihood of any one particular person winning the lottery? Or of being struck by lightning? These are just two well-known instances of something that could possibly happen but seem so rare and unlikely that they could never have been predicated. And so also is the tale told by Simon Winchester in The Professor and the Madman (Harper Perennial, 2005).

Winchester takes the story of two very different men, an American physician, Dr. W.C. Minor, and an English lexicologist, Dr. John Murray, and shows how their lives became interwoven through the writing of the Oxford English dictionary, the most comprehensive effort ever made to define the words that make up the English language.

Murray spent nearly a lifetime developing the dictionary and Minor was a prolific volunteer contributor to it, sending in thousands of suggestions. Winchester tells the separate parts of their early lives, the intersection of what, in its own way, became their life’s work, and the development of their friendship, something that didn’t occur until nearly twenty years of their working together, albeit separated by Minor’s confinement to what would be called a mental health facility today. Minor’s hospitalization was something that Murray was unaware of for many years, and that is just one of many surprising twists that true life took in the lives of these men.

Winchester tells this most unlikely story well, including not just the success of the dictionary itself, but also the role that personal tragedy played in it. Reading it whets my appetite to learn more about the Oxford English dictionary itself.
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LibraryThing member AlexTheHunn
Winchester combines the story of the origin of the Oxford English Dictionary with an individual's tale of murder and insanity in a fascinating way. Not only does the reader gain a sense of how the dictionary was compiled - this is more or less a matter of public record - but we also are granted access into a Victorian asylum. The erudite and discerning doctor unfortunately suffered delusions and was dangerous to himself and others.… (more)
LibraryThing member lahochstetler
One would not expect a history of the Oxford English Dictionary to be particularly interesting, but indeed, there is quite a story behind it. A tremendous amount of the dictionary's research was done by a convicted murderer mired in severe mental illness. This book recounts the strange tale of how W.C. Minor came to write significant portions of the dictionary and, more broadly, how the OED came to be.

The OED is undeniably a tremendous achievement. Winchester is clearly enamored of the dictionary; he states unequivocally that the OED is the most important dictionary in human history. He makes little of the various criticisms that have been waged against the dictionary: its orientation towards white, middle class language conventions, its imperialist outlook. Winchester has other interests, and cannot be criticized for that. Still, his dismissal of these criticisms is so absolute that it does make one wonder. Overall, this is a compelling story, enjoyably told.
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LibraryThing member JayLivernois
A must read for all bibliophiles
LibraryThing member OccassionalRead
Author Simon Winchester, a self-described adventurer, takes what could otherwise seem lexicographical drudgery, the 70 plus year making of the Oxford English Dictionary, and turns it into a relatively compact fascinating story about this massive undertaking and the men (and women) behind it. He weaves the broader story about cataloging the English language with a more narrow tale about the Professor (the editor James Murray) with the Madman (major contributor William Minor, an American doctor, Civil War Veteran, murderer, and schizophrenic). This book works on multiple levels. It is at once a great narrative about the massive etymological study of our native language and a fascinating and strange story of great, though in the case of Minor extremely disturbed, men. The story is at once tragic and triumphant, one of great accomplishment and personal tragedy. Winchester takes a topic that looks like it could weigh you down and indeed turns it into a bit of an intellectual adventure.… (more)
LibraryThing member melydia
One might think that the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary would be a dry read, but it most certainly is not. This is mostly due to the fact that one of the most prolific contributors turned out to be an American inmate in an asylum for the criminally insane. Seriously. True, you should have at least a passing interest in linguistics - or at least vocabulary - to get a lot out of this book, but in a lot of ways this nonfiction book reads like a novel. This is the sort of history book I enjoy. Definitely recommended for lovers of words.… (more)
LibraryThing member 391
Winchester really has a way with words. That way, however, is dramatic. Every potential moment of drama is heightened to its fullest, to the point where I occasionally felt like the author was standing behind me NARRATING EVERYTHING WITH A BIG, BOOMING VOICE. Maybe with a flashlight to shine on his face for the creepy points. I mean, I get it, it's a book about the creation of the dictionary, it probably gets dry quickly, but there were a couple moments I had to put the book down and giggle at the absurdity of it all. I did get used to the style eventually, and found the information interesting and readable, but I still think the level of pathos present in the book is far above what it requires.… (more)
LibraryThing member jjmachshev
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 just boggles the mind. "The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchester is well worth your time and a fun, educational read.… (more)
LibraryThing member John_Warner
In 1858, a group of Oxford lexicographers under the direction of Dr. James Murray conceived the daunting task of compiling the comprehensive collection of the English language. The task culminated seventy years later when it was published in a twelve-volume set. Since this undertaking required the perusal of existing English literature, how a word developed over time, and examples of its use, hundreds of volunteers were needed. As is the case in many charitable efforts, volunteers came and went.

However, one individual, Dr. William Minor, an American army surgeon, was so fascinated with the project that he stuck with it for 20+ years. Little was known about the man that contributed so much that Dr. Murray decided to meet him at his current address at Broadmoor Hospital, an asylum for the criminally insane in northern England. Assuming that he was a staff physician, he was surprised to learn that the individual who had been so helpful over the years, had been incarcerated there after murdering a man when Dr. Minor was in a paranoid and delusional state.

The history behind the creation of the OED and the friendship between Drs. Murray and Minor was so engaging that the nonfiction account read more like a novel and less like a history textbook. If you are a bibliophile or a etymologist, you will enjoy reading this book by Simon Winchester, a prolific and talented writer of several historical events.
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LibraryThing member thewanderingjew
The book was recommended to me by a bookseller, one of a rare breed today who actually reads and enjoys the books on the shelves and does not merely sell them. I always value the opinion of someone who lives for books.
There are two main characters in the book. One was wealthy, one poor, one Yale educated and one self educated. Yet they collaborated on the Oxford English Dictionary without knowing their backgrounds were so diverse and their mental states so different. It was a “marriage” of the minds of two men, James Murray and William Minor who were polar opposites. One was locked away from the world in a lunatic asylum and one preferred to be locked away from the world of publicity, maintaining a low public profile as much as possible. One achieved infamy and one success.
Two stranger people could not be found, working together toward so majestic a goal. William Minor, a physician, from a well known wealthy American family, was a normal young man for many years. He fought for his country during the Civil War worked his way through the ranks to become captain but then found his way to England and was later confined to the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum
James Murray was a self-educated lover of learning and literature who worked his way up the ranks of the literary world to become the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1879.
How these two men work together to pursue the same objective is the theme of this brief little book of unusual historic significance. Because of the call for volunteers to study books and word lists to create a pool of words to examine and from which to choose to include in the final dictionary, the unlikely relationship was born. Some time, in the early 1880’s, Minor became aware of the call for volunteers to work on the dictionary and he offered his services. He was highly qualified and well educated, though delusional as well, but this fact did not become known to Murray for several years and did not influence him to stop the relationship between Minor and the production of the dictionary. Actually, after a visit to the asylum, by Murray, a friendship developed.
At times the book is dry and tedious but the historic impact of the project was and still is today, monumental. How sad that the Oxford English Dictionary will no longer be published in hard cover. It is a piece of history being allowed to wither and die with the advent of technology.
It is hard to imagine a world without a proper dictionary, but indeed, that is what the world was until the mid 1800’s. There was no proper place to go to look up most words or to find their derivations. In the future, once again, there will be no hard copy available for the masses but there will be an electronic version. I suppose it will be more cost effective, more environmentally friendly and more accessible but for me, something will be missing when the actual pages disappear.
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LibraryThing member wildbill
I did not enjoy this as much as I thought I would. The writing did not have a good pace and it was not a page turner. The author tells the interesting story of Dr. W. C. Minor an American Civil War veteran who became a contributor to the first edition of the Oxford English dictionary. It is unusual because Dr. Minor is a resident of the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Minor develops an organized system for assembling his contributions from the library he maintains in his rooms at the hospital. Professor James Murray, the dictionary's editor, visits Dr. Minor on several occasions to discuss his contributions. The story ends in tragedy as Minor's illness destroys his mind. I read Winchester's book Krakatoa and I thought that was much better.… (more)
LibraryThing member helynrob
I felt like this was sensationalized too much in parts. Granted, that's why I read the book in the first place ("What?! A madman wrote the OED?!"), but I wanted Winchester to suppose less and tell more. I think the content is rich enough in drama and information to support itself without the author dropping his oar in and imagining the feelings of those involved or how things must have smelled. Perhaps these interjections were few and far between, but for me, they were extremely noticeable and vexing.

In the end though, I enjoyed learning about the OED.
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LibraryThing member SheWoreRedShoes
One of my graduate school friends possessed what is known as the condensed or compact version of the OED, which is essentially the OED in miniature typeset. The condensed version text is so tiny that the OED comes with its own magnifying glass. An official attached-by-a-chain magnifying glass. At $350 for the condensed OED, I wondered how my friend managed to scrape together the money to buy one. Of course we all had student loans, part-time restaurant work, and Ramen Noodles in the cupboards.

Turned out he found it at a garage sale. He paid $50 for all but one volume. I think ph-po was missing from the set. I couldn’t believe it. The OED––for 50 bucks. I was jealous. Intensely so. Not of his tee-shirts, which looked like they came from the same garage sale, but of his good fortune. Throughout graduate school, I dreamed he’d grow tired of possessing it and out of the goodness of his heart, bestow it to me. Never happened.

Ever since, I’ve wanted to own the OED. I even went so far as to price the full volume, full-sized set. When the Barnes & Noble employee gave me the price over the phone, she gasped and declared that a decimal place must have been off (it wasn’t). Yes, it is the price of 2400 packages of Ramen Noodles. In addition to the issue of an exorbitant price tag for the full volume set, there was (and is) the issue of storage space. Thirty hardbound volumes would have required not only another bookcase in my apartment, but also another wall space in the apartment that didn’t (and still doesn’t) exist.

Two summers ago my fascination with the OED increased when I spied a paperback at a bookstore titled, The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. I thought, Murder? Insanity? and the Dictionary? The back cover blurb read,


One man submitted more than ten thousand definitions to the dictionary. Imagine ten thousand dictionary definitions. Imagine ten thousand of anything. If writing a ten thousand word prose piece is an achievement, then what is writing ten thousand––more than ten thousand––dictionary definitions? That’s some serious serious etymologizing. I was astounded. When I read the next sentence in the back cover blurb, “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,” I was hooked.

Of course I bought it. Bookstore managers clap their hands with joy when they see a customer like me walk through the door. At $13.00 plus tax, I figured even if I couldn’t purchase The Book, I could at least own a book about its history. And for any bibliophile, the book is a delightful read, full of anecdotes and facts such as, “the total length of type [for the first edition]––all hand-set. . .is 178 miles, the distance between London and the outskirts of Manchester,” which roughly corresponds to the distance between Bloomington-Normal and St.Louis. Winchester’s book also includes excerpts of Murray and Minor’s letters and quotes from the 19th century tabloids (about the murder, the murderer, the ‘call for words’). Readers also learn bhang, brick-tea, brinjal, catamaran, cholera, delicately, directly, dirt, disquiet, drink, duty, and dye were among Dr. W.C. Minor’s favorite words.

It was then I became certain that someday I must figure out a way to purchase that OED. Perhaps eat 2400 packages of. . . and 2000 cans of . . . I could perhaps swing an egg for breakfast. . .

In the midst of all those calculations (and I’m still calculating), I discovered a few years ago that Milner Library had subscribed to the online version of the OED. That treasure trove of histories and meanings of even the most obscure of words (such as frisson) was available to me––for the best price around: $0.00! Reading the format––digitalized text streaming through fiber optic cables and readable through a GUI––is different than perusing the onionskin pages of a leather bound book. And I can’t cart my Mac around the apartment, never mind out to the mailbox nor to the convenience store around the corner, but the purpose is the same: an etymological encounter.

January 2000
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LibraryThing member bontley
Learned a lot about words. Starting with peotomy.
LibraryThing member BooksForDinner
A great story, and of particular interest to anyone who loves the English language!
LibraryThing member yvonne.sevignykaiser
This is my second time reading the Professor and the Madman and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed the first time around. This book was on my library Non-Fiction Book Club Reading List for July. I was fascinated by the fact that William Shakespeare did not have access to a dictionary because there was not one available for the English language. A dictionary was not available until Samuel Johnson and there were many great British writers like Dafoe, Swift who wished to fix the English language and ban words like bamboozle, uppish and couldn't. Many dictionaries came out but it was Dr. Murray from Oxford and several others who set out to not only document every English word but give use and context of words with the use of literature including the Bible. It took nine years to put out the first nine volumes of the dictionary all of which would not have been possible had it not been for Dr Minor. Minor a very well educated man and doctor was prolific in the number of words and information that he submitted for the dictionary. He found an ad for the project in books he ordered from London booksellers.

This book is more about the history of the project and the key men involved that gave the dictionary life. Dr Murray was our Oxford professor and Dr. Minor was of course the Madman. In understanding the creation of the dictionary it is important to know the men behind the project. Dr. Minor was an American who served during the Civil War as a Army surgeon. After the war the doctor found himself in London trying to find his sanity. All was going well until one night when he murdered a man in cold blood. He was tried and found insane, he was sentenced to Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum until the monarchs "Pleasure Be Known" whenever that may be.

There is one scene that will leave the reader a little squeamish but overall a fascinating read.
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
The pretext for this book is rather slight – one of the significant volunteer contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary was, although an intelligent and educated man, also an inmate of an insane asylum, confined for a murder committed while in the throes of a schizophrenic paranoid delusion.
While, as a revelation, this fact may be less than earth-shattering, Winchester uses this story of the inmate, Dr. W.C. Minor, the man he killed, George Merrett, and the main editor of the OED, Dr. James Murray, as a vehicle for all kinds of interesting details – he goes on quite a number of tangents, but they're always immensely well-written and fascinating! Winchester isn't afraid to stray from dry, historical writing – he definitely makes guesses, fleshes things out for colorful effect – but his research is also obviously thoroughly done, and he also stops short of fictifying (ok, that's not a word, but I think it should be) his topic – it's always made clear when his scenarios are theoretical.
I'd highly recommend this book not only for those interested in dictionaries and lexicography, but for anyone interested in Victorian England, the Civil War, treatment of the mentally ill, or any of a number of other topics.
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