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About the Book:
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 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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Related Web sites:
Review of The Professor and the Madman
Dictionary of American Regional English
American Dialect Society
Oxford English Dictionary
Interview with Simon Winchester
If You Like The Professor and the Madman, Try:
Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words. By: Bill Bryson. 2002.
Torn Wings and Faux Paus. By: Karen Elizabeth Gordon. 1997.
The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. By: Simon Winchester. 2003.
Galileo's Daughter. By: Dava Sobel. 1999.
Map that Changed the World. By: Simon Winchester. 2001.
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