Books: The Professor And The Madman By Simon Winchester

  (Drivebycuriosity) - Encyclopedias are immense hoards of knowledge - they are not made to entertain. But "The Professor And The Madman" about the making of the gargantuan Oxford English Dictionary is very entertaining and a pleasure to read as well ( amazon).

Simon Winchester, the author, did a fine job. He melted the about 70 years lasting development of the monstrous publication with the biographies of 2 men: James Murray, the creator, organizer and main editor of the OED, the "Professor", and the American W. C. Minor, one of his most important supporting writers, the "Madman" (this is a spoiler free blog).

The book is written like a novel. Winchester tells how Murray mastered his gargantuan task, how the "mad man" became the "mad man" and how creating the OED shaped their different lives. "The Professor and .." touches a great variety of topics: linguistics, book printing, organization, American civil war, mental illness, murder and many more.

It´s quite impressive how Winchester melted all these very different elements together into a fluid and entertaining tale, a task almost as challenging as creating the OED. I learned a lot reading this book and I had fun as well. Highly recommended.