James Murray was a brilliant scholar, a man of letters whose unique ability to master foreign tongues first surfaced at age fourteen, when family members discovered young James attempting to teach the local cows Latin.
It is the unlikely pairing of these two men that would forever change the course of modern literature. Together, they are responsible for documenting every word in the English language into what later became known as the Oxford English Dictionary, a reference guide that, to this day, serves as the cornerstone for every library and instituiton of higher learning.
Their story is revealed in Simon Winchester's part-history, part-fiction account, "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary." From his cell on the top floor of the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane, Dr. Minor, a former surgeon who served during the American Civil War, reads a notice published by Professor Murray calling for volunteers to contribute to a dictionary of the English language. Serving a life sentence for a murder he admits to having committed, Dr. Minor has managed to collect a large library of rare and limited-edition texts which would serve as crucial reference materials for Mr. Murray's daunting project. Two decades of correspondence would follow as Dr. Minor fights his demons of depression and disillusionment to submit 12,000 quotes and become the single most prolific contributor to the OED.
Professor Murray is as overwhelmed by the thousands of neat, handwritten quotations from Dr. Minor as he is impressed with his organized mind. Whenever the professor is at a loss to document a specific word, he begins to rely on Dr. Minor who always has a more than suitable recomendation. But after twenty years of correspondence the two have never met, though they live only fifty miles apart. Why, on numerous occasions when Murray has invited Minor to visit Oxford, has Minor regularly and mysteriously refused?
"The Professor and the Madman" moves effortlessly from suspensful thriller to historical fiction and is as entertaining as it is informative. Journalist and author Simon Winchester creates a vivid, engaging tale ripe with imaginative detail that is a must-read for everyone who has a love for the written language and for words. Based on official government documents that, according to the author, have been "locked away for more than a century" this story explores the fine line between madness and genius with a clear, concise style of prose that is sure to please even the most casual reader.
Ultimately, "The Professor and the Madman" shows the reader what no dictionary, not even the OED, can ever fully illustrate: the true definition of friendship.
(Tony Peregrin)
- "The Professor and the Madman"
copyright 1998 New City Communications, Inc.