The Professor and the Madman

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester is exactly what it sounds like: a story about the making of the OED and some of the circumstances surrounding the involvement of American Dr. W. C. Minor and the Scotsman Sir James Murray (I won’t spoil which is the professor and which the madman). These two men were one of hundreds of people involved in what turned out to me the monumentally intricate and exhausting task of the creation of the OED in Victorian London.

As one can imagine, the creation of any reference piece, be it an encyclopedia, atlas, or dictionary, is a task not taken lightly. Prior to the compilation of the OED, no one had endeavored to put together a complete and exhaustive dictionary of the English language. Attempts had been made, the books gives a few examples of individuals who had put together dictionaries of rare or difficult words, some by subject rather than alphabetically, but none had attempted to catalogue the entire English language.

Furthermore, the reasons cited for the creation of such a document were interesting. One of the more interesting motivations, held by Gulliver’s Travels author Jonathan Swift, was to preserve the language as it was, to fix it and hold it in place from changing linguistic trends for the maintenance of its purity. it was with relief that I read the rebuttal of Benjamin Martin who wrote that No language as depending on arbitrary use and customs can ever be permanently the same, but will always be in a mutable and fluctuating state; and what is deem’d polite and elegant in one age, may be accounted uncouth and barbarous in another. Well spoke. And Samuel Johnson, editor of A Dictionary of the English Language, which pre-dates the OED by nearly fifty years, wholeheartedly agreed, but probably because he knew it would be a truly impossible task to do what Swift suggested.

It wasn’t until Dr. Richard Trench, at a meeting of the Philological Society at the London Library identified seven principles that recent dictionaries lacked. Above all it had become clear that the editors of the new project would need to maintain their objectivity. Dr. Trench’s sentiment was that “It was an essential credo for any future dictionary makers…to realize that a dictionary was simply ‘an inventory of the language’ and decidedly not a guide to proper usage.”

The work put in, by hundreds of people all over the world, must have been appallingly overwhelming. I appreciate Winchester’s method of making the process move swiftly through the text. The stories of Dr. Minor and Sir Murray are enjoyable, though sometimes heartbreaking, and the brief look at their relationship is actually quite lovely. The most meaningful part of the book for me was the Author’s Note, where Winchester quite lovingly and with admirable respect, dedicates the text to one George Merritt, whose involvement in the creation of the OED was nil, but whose death was nonetheless an impetus for its successful completion.

If the minutiae of trivia and obscure bits of history or language interest you, I think you’d rather enjoy this book. It is another text full of names that I suppose I could have taken notes on in an effort to better keep track of them, but I figured that anyone important would be mentioned enough times for me to remember them on my own. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to finish the book, though I think being home sick for three of the last five days may have helped.