The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary

"The Professor and the Madman" examines the relationship between Sir James Murray, editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and Dr. William Minor, who contributed an extraordinary number of quotations to the OED. James Murray was a Scottish autodidact who became associated with the OED through his participation in the Philological Society. William Minor was a surgeon from a wealthy American family who had served the Union in the Civil War. He was one of many educated amateurs to respond to Murray's request for volunteers to read volumes of English literature in search of illustrative quotations. The unusual thing about Minor's relationship with the OED project was that he was confined to Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane at the time.

Minor was an apparent paranoid schizophrenic who had shot a man in 1871 while in the throes of a paranoid delusion. He was found "not guilty by reason of insanity" and confined to Broadmoor indefinitely. There, he collected a private library in his rooms and became one of the OED's most valuable volunteers, as he could be relied on for a good quote when the editors most needed one. Minor created a word index and made an effort to stay on top of the vocabulary that the OED's editors were working on currently. James Murray and his staff worked at the seemingly insurmountable task of defining and illustrating every nuance of every word in the English language from a 15x50-foot shed, called the Scriptorium, behind his Oxford home.

The two men developed a friendship that lasted 20 years. Simon Winchester takes advantage of recently discovered letters by Murray to shed more light on the relationship than was possible in the past. He debunks the mythology surrounding their first meeting. James Murray and William Minor are interesting people who participated in one of the world's greatest achievements in scholarship, awe-inspiring in its scope to this day. But "The Professor and the Madman" too often speculates without basis as to its characters' motives and takes a flippant tone. It is full of filler, such as a lengthy rumination on Shakespeare's inability to consult a dictionary. It doesn't get around to the creation of the OED until the second half, which is better than the first half. But, all told, not well-written.

"The Professor and the Madman" is a fascinating story made even more so by the fact it is true. I recommend it to anyone interested in the history of the English language.

I for one, think this would be an excellent movie. This book really shows the power of the human endeavor. Although there were things that I think should have been explored further, the book deals simultaneously with two fascinating topics. The making of the Oxford Dictionary, and archaic psychiatry and its surrounding institutions. Great read.

For most of us, a dictionary is a tool that we take for granted. In The Professor and the Madman, the author recounts the fascinating history that leads to the creation of the first dictionary, including the contributions of a mysterious individual who lived much of his adult life in an English Insane Asylum. This well written book will keep you on the edge of your seat as effectively as any good murder mystery!

I had read the author's book about the volcano Krakatoa, (Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (P.S.)) and had enjoyed that very much, so when I found this one, I purchased it without reservations. The author's style is very readable; I managed to get through it in a little over a day's reading. His descriptions of people, places and events is very vivid, putting the reader "right there."

The Professor and the Madman is probably one of the most intriguing personal tales I've read in a long time. Simon Winchester, although not trained as an historian, has done a marvelous job of pulling together diverse sources in order to create a portrait of a very troubled person who nevertheless managed to make a major contribution to society. And this despite his permanent residence in a mental institution in England for murder.

The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary is also described in detail. In fact the book is something of the biography of a dictionary. The author goes into great detail about the original plans for the book--actually a large collection of mega-folios--and how it evolved under different directors. The undertaking was immense, involved, and well deserving of this public recognition. I had no idea that the book, so often seen in a very abbreviated, single, desk-sized volume, was so vast an undertaking as it is. Apparently each word of the English language is not only described and properly spelled, all its meanings are listed with the first literary use of each, and its etymology. Amazing.

The story of Dr. Minor is poignant but inspiring. I had heard the name before, mentioned as a possible identity of the Ripper Murderer, an attribution which I much doubt after reading this author's description of the man and his behavior. While the Ripper Murders seem to be the product of a deranged mind--that of a psychopath--they don't suggest someone delusional and "not together." Minor's service as a Civil War battlefield surgeon and the effect those experiences seem to have produced is far more likely to have exacerbated an underlying psychosis, even an inherited propensity for schizophrenia. That type of diagnosis would make very unlikely the premeditated murder of the type the Ripper cases are described as having been. Crazy he may have been, a murder as well, but probably not a serial killer. A diagnosis of schizophrenia would certainly explain Dr. Minor's intense focus on minutia and his great care in researching individual words to the nth degree. In short, it seems possible that the man had found a way of preventing further outbursts that had caused him to harm another person, of keeping himself safe from personal harm, and a useful purpose to which to put his undoubted intellect (many who suffer schizophenia are extremely gifted). More importantly he had found a way to keep himself focused away from his delusions (and probable hallucinations) and on a socially useful project that gave him a great deal of personal satisfaction and a sense of purpose without which his disorder might have worsened far more rapidly than it actually did. He was a soundly functioning person for most of his surprisingly long life (85), until the disorder he suffered became incapacitating. He died in his sleep in 1920 at his home on the banks of the Connecticut River, to whence he had been released late in life, it having been determined that he was no longer a danger to others.


A book with all the interest of a mystery.