history of oxford english dictionary book

The Hollywood Reporter (republished by AllBusiness). 'Icon, Par Refer To Boorman For 'madman' Helm'. 'Mel Gibson, Sean Penn to Star in 'Professor and the Madman' (Exclusive)'. Bernstein, Books of the Times: Searching for a Life, He Found the Language. Turner, The Lexicographer in the Asylum, Times Literary Supplement, June 26. ^ a b Simon Winchester (28 September 2010).'The Strange Case of the Madman With a Quotation for Every Word'. ^ a b c Mel Gussow (December 4, 2006).Winchester went on to write The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary (2003) about the broader history of the OED. It was Ashmead who persuaded Winchester to call the North American edition The Professor and the Madman (over Winchester's objection that Murray was not a professor), saying 'No one here knows what the hell a Crowthorne is.' Reception Of the project Ashmead said 'we can make lexicography cool'. Only when Harper Collins editor Larry Ashmead read the proposal and championed the book did Winchester pursue the necessary research in earnest. Faced with the enormous task of producing a comprehensive dictionary, with a quotation illustrating the uses of each meaning of each word, and with evidence for the earliest use of each, Murray enlisted the help of dozens of amateur philologists as volunteer researchers.Ī journalist with three decades of experience, and the author of a dozen travel-inspired books, Winchester's initial proposal to write a book about an obscure lexicographer was originally met with rejection. Murray was a talented linguist and had other scholarly interests, and had taught in schools and worked in banking.

The 'professor' referred to in the North American title is Sir James Murray, the chief editor of the OED during most of the project.

Minor was, at the time, imprisoned in the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, near the village of Crowthorne, in Berkshire, England. The book tells the story of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and one of its most prolific early contributors, William Chester Minor, a retired United States Army surgeon.

History of oxford english dictionary book