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Title: The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0-19-860702-4 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (27 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Story of Flawed People Who Together, Made A Masterpiece
Comment: The Oxford English Dictionary is an unrivaled monument to the history, beauty and complexity of the English language. The story of the men and women who made this marvelous work makes for compellling reading, especially in the hands of such a skilled storyteller as Simon Winchester.
"The Professor and the Madman," Winchester's first best-seller, was the story of Dr. W.C. Minor, an American who had gone to England in what was a vain hope of regaining his sanity. Instead, he committed a senseless murder, and was imprisoned in an asylum for life. Minor found redemption in his otherwise ruined life by devoting decades of service as a volunteer reader/researcher for the OED.
In his introduction to this volume, Winchester explains that an editor at the Oxford University Press suggested that since he had written a footnote to the story of the great enterprise, he might want to undertake the main story. Fortunately for us, he took up the suggestion with enthusiasm.
The pace of the narrative never falters in its entire 250 pages. The opening chapter provides a brief overview of the evolution of English and of previous efforts to compile a truly comprehensive dictionary of the language--and why all fell short of that lofty goal.
What became the OED enterprise had its origins in the late 1850s, but the first completed dictionary pages did not see the light of day until the early 1880s. Why the project was almost stillborn, how it survived deaths, disorganization, lack of funds and innumerable other setbacks--all of this is brought vividly to life in Winchester's tale. Even when the great editor James Murray took the helm and the project finally emerged from chaos, it still faced obstaces, especially from those who would have sacraficed quality in order to produce a swifter, but less authoratative, final product.
Today, the third edition of the OED is in preparation by a staff working in modern offices, making use of all the tools of twenty-first century information technology. The contrast to the conditions facing makers of the original OED, laboring by hand, sorting tens of thousands of slips of paper into pigenhole slots in an ugly, dank corrugated tin shed (grandly named the "Scriptorium" by Murray) is startling, and makes their achievement all the more amazing--and grand.
Dr. Minor makes a brief appearance in the story, along with some of the other unusual and exemplary volunteer contributors from around the world who combed nearly 800 years of English literature to give the OED its impressive depth. While none of the other's stories may be quite as extreme as Minor's, it's clear that for many, their involvement in this great cause (with no pay and little recognition) also gave depth and meaning to their lives.
It's the vivid, human qualities that Winchester illuminates so well make this a great story...one that you won't want to miss.
Rating: 5
Summary: OED--Beginning to End
Comment: I am a big fan of Winchester's first book on the OED, The Professor & the Madman, so how could I pass up this book? Whereas in his previous book Winchester basically focused on a single relationship in the construction of this great dictionary, here he gives us the broad view of the story, from its conception by a group of philologists to its completion nearly 70 years later. This is a marvelous book.
Of course, Winchester gives us the story of the "great men" whose vision and hard work brought this great dictionary into being--Herbert Coleridge, grandson of the famous poet; Frederick Furnivall, whose lust for life nearly buried the project; James Murray, who dedicated the better part of his life to its completion--but he also gives us much more. He brings these men to life. He brings the world which made such men to life as well. It is an eminently readable tale.
And, beginning and end, Winchester gives us the precursors of the dictionary--Johnson & Webster--as well as a taste of its impact on our world. I cannot imagine that anyone with a love of words or reading would pass up an opportunity to read this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fab Forward
Comment: The greatest virtue, it seems to me, of this account of the glacial development of what can only be called the greatest reference work in the English language is its concision. The account of the long evolution of this mammoth undertaking with all the equally eccentric and assiduous characters involved over the generations of tedious, loving work it took to complete could have become a mammoth volume itself. Instead, Winchester manages to provide us with a provocative page-turner which can be read in an afternoon, over tea and scones preferably. I would say that this book is a must for anyone who owns a copy of the OED or is simply infatuated with words. But, in keeping with the genteel tradition of English Lexicography as evinced here: Descriptive not Prescriptive, as the rather hidebound American dictionaries tend to be, I shall refrain. I rather deem the book a pleasant Prologue, much as Chaucer uses the term in, let's see...circa 1374.
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Title: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester ISBN: 006099486X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss ISBN: 1592400876 Publisher: Gotham Books Pub. Date: 12 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: The Map That Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0060931809 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Krakatoa : The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0066212855 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The River at the Center of the World : A Journey Up the Yangtze and Back in Chinese Time by Simon Winchester ISBN: 0805055088 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 15 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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