[fantasyfan]

The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester may not sound like the most exciting book ever written. In fact, it is much more enjoyable than one would expect. The OED is one of the greatest academic works ever compiled and by common consent the greatest English Dictionary of all. It took seventy years to complete and it's first four editors did not live to see that completion.

Winchester is not an academic and he presents the story mainly through interesting anecdotes, and by focussing on the various personalities and their often bitter clashes and varied motivations throughout the enormous project--the progress of which was by no means smooth. In fact there were several times when the possibility of ever finishing the work seemed very bleak indeed.

Most of the book is about James Murray the third principal editor whose vision informed the entire idea--and indeed which continues to this day in the second edition and the concept of a third electronic version. This breathtakingly brilliant Scotsman who could speak and/or read over thirty languages and whose formal education ended at the age of 14 is considered the greatest lexicographer since Samuel Johnson.

His story alone is worth knowing and it is bound up intimately with the great Oxford English Dictionary.