Summary:
Masterfully researched and eloquently written, The Professor and the Madman 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—one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the OED’s overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, was stunned to discover that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand entries. But their surprise would pale in comparison to what they were about to discover when the committee insisted on honoring him. Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
Review:
This is one of those books that was recommended to me time and again by people who are familiar with my interests. Now that I’ve finally gotten around to reading it, I can see why. The creation of the OED was a monumental undertaking, and there were many diligent and dedicated people involved in the work. I knew in a general way that one of the contributors was a man who was confined to an asylum, but that was about it. The full history is much more interesting than I thought it would be.
I think the most surprising thing that I learned from reading this book was just how much of the work of creating the definitions was crowdsourced. It makes sense–the dictionary aimed to codify every word in the English language–but at the time that it was done, this involved putting ads in newspapers asking for volunteers to send in definitions, and then sorting through all of the submissions that subsequently arrived. Roughly half of the book follows the work done on the OED over the course of the many years it was in produciton.
The other half of the book deals with William Minor, an American who was convicted of a murder in London but deemed too mentally ill to punish and was therefore confined to an asylum. Winchester provides an overview of his life and the events that may have pushed his mind to the breaking point. By focusing on Minor, the author is able to paint a picture of the time period in which he lived, both in America and in England. It’s an interesting backdrop to the OED work, and a fascinating contrast with the lives of the other prominent players in the book’s creation.
As much as I enjoyed learning about both subjects, and as much as I was interested in seeing them compared and contrasted, they don’t necessarily sit easily together. At times it feels like Winchester wrote a biography of Minor and incidentally took detours to talk about the OED. I’m not sure if the book could have been structured any better than it is, though, so I’m not going to complain too much. I still found the book to be an engaging read, and it’s one that I can see revisiting in the future.
While there are other books dealing with the OED project, this is a good book to start with before delving deeper. And Minor’s story is sure to keep you reading to see what his life was like. The Professor and the Madman is a good gift to give to someone interested in language and will hopefully prompt the desire to learn more.
