Customer Reviews

The Surgeon of Crowthorne

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a well-told tale that leads the audience through some of the politics involved in the production of the Oxford English Dictionary. The author has fictionalised the account at times through necessity, but made it clear that this is what he has done, in a story that combines murder most foul with the troubled life of the murdered.

The dictionary ("OED") was a product of the Victorian `we can do anything' optimism, and was undoubtedly a hugely ambitious project. The task would probably have been finished without the help of Dr William Chester Minor, a resident of a large country house in Berkshire (and better known as Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane). However, the work was enormously advanced by the surgeon / murderer. Minor grasped the vast amount of work involved, and had the tiem and source material to contribute freely. He also had a wonderful method in his searching out quotations for the normal and abnormal use of words. His method enabled the editorial team, led by Dr James Murray, to request help from Minor and know thay would receive an enlightening and quality answer.

Minor died in 1920, back in his native America, more that 7 years before the completion of the OED. In the completed work there are 414835 words defined, and 1,827,306 illustrative quotations. Minor alone had contributed scores of thousands.

The English speaking world is indebted to the contributions of William Minor. We are also grateful to Simon Winchester for telling the tale with clarity and humour. Winchester also debunks the mythical account of the first meeting between Dr Murray and Minor. I got the feeling that the author liked the fabled account, even though he knew it not to be true (and clearly states that fact).

Peter Morgan, Bath, UK (morganp@supanet.com)

Winchester has a marvellous knack of being able to bring to life rollicking stories from the past, which in other hands may appear dry and boring. The plot cracks along, making this a fast (and informative) read. If you like this, I also recommend "The Map That Changed the World", also by Simon Winchester.

This book is known in the US as " The Professor and the Madman"

I loved this book - couldn't put it down from when I started it. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in remarkable off-beat characters. Don't be put off by the fact that the story takes place withinn the context of lexicography. It's not really about that - it's about the people

The Oxford English Dictionary is one of the largest and most encompassing dictionaries in the world. It took almost 70 years to complete and during those years thousands of volunteers scrutinized newspapers, journals and new and old books for new words, new meanings of words and sentences that would clarify the meanings. One of the most active volunteers was the American doctor William Chester Minor. During the 20 years that the doctor collaborated he developed a friendship with the editor, James Murray. When Murray decided to visit doctor Minor, he found that the latter served a lifetime sentence in the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane after he had killed an innocent worker. The intellectual doctor Minor was found to be mad as a hatter: at night he heard voices, he claimed he was kidnapped, tortured and abused and under the floor of his cell there would live a bunch of Pygmies. The biographies of Murray, Minor and the Oxford English Dictionary are nicely interrelated in this well-written book.

This is a marvellous meditation on the history of English dictionary making as well as a sympathetic unravelling of the life of one of the OED's most eccentric American contributors who was put in an English asylum for insane murder. Winchester's The Map That Changed The World is also highly recommended.