Quote:
Originally Posted by Taylor514ce
The Professor and the Madman, back cover:
"The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane."
I read everything from Simon Winchester.
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yes, i saw that, it is on the fictionwise site (or books on board ? somewhere...) as part of the synopsis. i was just wondering about the difference with "The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary", since they seem to be about the same thing, at least in part... but anyway these books look quite good, so i will start with the professor and the madman and see if the other one will come out in LIT format soon (and hopefully a bit less expensive as well). recommendations for similar authors are welcome, although perhaps we should really start our own thread for this...
