Alexander the Corrector [Hardcover]

Julia Keay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 2004

The bizarre and fascinating story of Alexander Cruden, who single-handedly compiled that monumental dictionary/index/gazetteer to the Bible, Cruden's Concordance -- still going strong 260 years later. Cruden's Concordance to the Bible was a monumental achievement; at 2. 5 million words, it is four times the length of the Bible itself; and in nearly three hundred years it has never been superseded. Yet Alexander Cruden is remembered today not so much for his mighty work as for the widespread belief that he was mad. Born in Aberdeen in 1699, as a young man he was cast into an asylum for reasons that at the time were considered too shocking to reveal. The scandal ruined his plans to enter the Church, and he fled to London, where he worked as a private tutor and then as a proof-corrector before becoming Bookseller by Royal Warrant to Queen Caroline (wife of George II). In 1737, weeks after completing his Concordance, he was back in the madhouse, abducted by a jealous rival for the affections of a rich widow and committed to a private asylum. After three months he managed to escape through a window. Some years later he was again incarcerated, this time after a dispute with his landlady. Each time he took his persecutors to court; each time his case failed because for different reasons he too refused to explain the circumstances of his original incarceration. He unsuccessfully petitioned the King to be appointed 'Corrector' of the nation's morals, thereafter styling himself 'Alexander the Corrector', promoting the 4th Commandment and performing 'acts of benevolence to his fellow creatures'. Subsequent generations accepted the diagnosis of Cruden as mad, but Julia Keay has at last uncovered the scandal and reveals the true, but no less tragic, story of his 'madness'. At times harrowing, at times richly comic, Alexander the Corrector restores the reputation of a lonely and misunderstood genius.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A perfectly lovely book, justly sympathetic to a most remarkable and enigmatic man whose scholarship enriches us still, centuries after the completion of his astonishing and entirely solitary work. In telling Alexander Cruden's story so impeccably Julia Keay shows herself to be a biographer of rare talent.' Simon Winchester

Meet the mastermind behind the concordance of the Bible in a new, revisionist biography. Anyone who has ever searched for a word on BibleGateway.com owes a debt to Alexander Cruden (1699-1770). In the 1720s, he decided to compile a concordance of the English Bible. His wasn't the first, but it was the most sophisticated and remains definitive; it has not gone out of print since its initial publication in 1737. Cruden, a devout Calvinist, catalogued every one of the King James Version's 777,746 words. He also included explanations of unfamiliar terms, helpfully pointing out, for example, that scorpions are dangerous reptiles "more mischievous to women than men." He undertook this mammoth task in his spare time, working as a professional proofreader by day. Keay (The Spy Who Never Was, 1991) positions herself as Cruden's champion and defender against previous biographers, who have typically described him as "confused," "unhinged," "a man of diseased mind": in a word, "insane." Although Cruden was committed to mental wards at least three times in his life, Keay takes pains to show that he was the victim of ignominious plots and actually quite sane. In her eyes, it was downright liberating when Cruden's sister had him committed yet again in 1753. This insult, she argues, actually freed Cruden from "his incessant struggle to prove his sanity." Since absolutely everyone, even his own sis, thought him mad, why bother trying to change public opinion? He "would eventually emerge from this catharsis . . . generous, brave, angry and, if increasingly eccentric, also rather admirable." Keay's interpretation is commendably consistent, but she is so hell-bent on asserting Cruden's sanity that the reader may occasionally wonder if the lady doth protest too much. Unlikely to start a Cruden craze, but Keay makes an interesting argument. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author

Julia Keay is a writer (author of The Spy Who Never Was and With Passport and Parasol) and broadcaster, whose works include several documentaries for BBC Radio Scotland. She is the co-editor with her husband John Keay of the Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 269 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins; First Edition, First Printing edition (April 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 000713195X
• ISBN-13: 978-0007131952
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,027,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)