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Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary

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Well, how many books can keep you amused when stuck in limbo flying from the East Coast to San Francisco for two days? This one certainly did.

The author has written an excellent study of the person(s), times, and scholarship devoted to the creation of the great Oxford English Dictionary. This revolutionary work fused burgeoning studies in comparative philology of the English language with the rich tradition of literary history and language found in Johnson's earlier efforts.

Murray, an autodidact from a rich tradition of self-taught scholarship in the Border counties of Scotland, proved to be the perfect man for the gargantuan task of editing the OED. He devoted 40 years of his life to the effort after achieving remarkable personal and academic success in English and Scottish philology.

This is a charming, learned and very readable biography about a man and a masterpiece created to chronical the English language. His family, times and good humor are recorded in this intimate yet scholarly biography. Thank you, Ms. Murray, for letting us into the Scriptorium!

Finally, days after writing a review of the Madman and theProfessor, I remembered that this was the book that I enjoyed so muchmore. While the author of that book went for the cheesy effects and Victorian tricks, this author concentrated on the making of the dictionary itself and the extraordinary devotion of Murray. It is inspiring to read about people back in those days who really devoted their lives to invention and intellectual pursuits. Once you read the description of the scriptorium and how Murray farmed out assignments to literally thousands of readers, you'll appreciate why the OED is such an important reference work. If not for marketing, this book would be the best seller about the making of the OED. A great read from start to finish.

Elizabeth Murray, the granddaughter of James Murray, who was the chief editor of the huge Oxford English Dictionary on which every serious scholar of English continues to depend, has written an excellent biography of the greatest English lexicographer, and done more: she has also given an insight into his personality, and, yet more importantly, into the whole scholarly world of philology, lexicography etc. in Victorian England, and the difficulties which beset the creators of the dictionary. I recommend the biography most highly, and feel that all fans of *The Surgeon of Crowthorne* (chiefly on Dr W.C. Minor) should read this - preferably BEFORE that book (so as to get a sense of context), but otherwise after. - Joost Daalder, Professor of English, Flinders University (see "More about me')

This is really two books in one: the life story of James Murray, first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the tale of the dictionary itself. Both are lovingly told. It's a must read for anyone interested in dictionaries or linguistics.

James Murray was a prodigy. He learned languages, geography, botany at an early age. He lived in Scotland. He was intrigued that his border language was identical to that of Northumberland and so that the English-Scots boundary had no linguistic significance. He was always learning, always collecting knowledge.

In two years at school he learned four languages. After school he was tutored in two more by a family friend, Italian and German. His family did not send him to grammar school at Melrose because there were other boys to educate. He became an assistant master when he was seventeen. By 1857 he was developing an interest in philology. Seeing Anglo-Saxon put him into a high state of excitement. He moved to London and started to work at Russian. He wrote THE DIALECT OF THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES OF SCOTLAND.

James Murray was respected by Morris, Ellis, Sweat, Skeat--men instrumental in revolutionizing the science of etymology. In 1868 at the Philological Society Murray encountered Frederick Furnivall. Furnivall was an inveterate founder of organizations for the study of English. Murray became an editor of the dictionary project of the Philological Society after the first editor, Herbert Coleridge, died. Borrowing the method of work from the Germans, Coleridge had started in 1860 with fifty four pigeon-holes. James Murray was named editor in 1877.

Ultimately there were sixteen thousand pages of the OED. Murray died in July 1915. The last portion of the dictionary appeared in 1928. Supplements to the dictionary were issued in 1933 and 1972. There are two appendices, notes, and an index in this very good book.

To my mind, James Murray was a model of what scholars should be about: individuals who combine broad love of learning with single-minded concentration on the task at hand, who know their minds well enough to stand on principle but who are humble enough to retain a simple faith in God.

The task of Murray's granddaughter, K. M. Elisabeth Murray (1909-1998), in writing this now classic biography was made the easier by the fact that Murray was a genuinely good man, a man who loved his large family and who was, in turn, revered by them. Although Elisabeth Murray does not ignore her ancestor's occasional excitability and depression or his attempts to over-dramatize and exaggerate his plight as editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, she rarely has to apologize for any of his specific actions. James Murray tried desperately to take the ethical high road. In the words of the psalmist, he was a person who "swears to his own hurt and does not change."

Wonderfully readable, the book seems to bog down only where the bog appears necessary, the "slough of despond" that too often bounded repeated negotiations for producing a dictionary so mammoth that even the experienced Murray seriously misjudged its final size. Otherwise, this book is the model life of a model scholar, a self-made man who ennobled both lexicography and his descendants with his determination to bend his life's energy toward a worthy goal.

Elisabeth Murray writes a wonderful and highly detailed biography of her grandfather, James Murray. Simon Winchester reintroduced many in this country to Mr. Murray in his book The Professor and the Madman, which told the story of Murray and an American living in an English asylum named W. C. Minor. This book was highly readable, but not comprehensive as a true biography of Murray.

James Murray, the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, was a gentle man of words who dedicated his life to the study of the English Language. His efforts are best understood in this book by the descriptions Elisabeth gives of his scriptorum, where Murray spent the majority of his life, and where Elisabeth worked as a young lady.

In reading about this man's life and the effort that was required to undertake the construction of this dictionary, one really gets a sense of the vastness and complexity of the English Language, the historical richness and the regional diversity. One also sees in florid detail the life of one of the great late-Victorian pedants.

James Murray begins like a Tom Sawyer; moves along like a delightful story teller and wizard who captured the old and young in his desire to examine and inform. Becomes a work horse for other driving souls in language and nature taking on tasks as thrown his way and performing with a high level of integraty and completeness. Essentially a scientist in his desire for the basic data which he found more precious than spectulation. Then left a bank job in London to teach young people At Mill Hill and from their was chosen by the elete of Oxford for his proven capacity for excellent work in the discovery of the history and meaning of words. Read it and get the joy of his love life with Ada and the raising of their ten children. A crown he enjoyed as much as the thirteen volumns of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Warren L. Dahlstrom Sr. Fairfax, Virginia