The Meaning of Madness

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, by Simon Winchester (HarperCollins, 242 pp, $22)

AT first glance, a hard-driving journalist and traveler to dangerous places would not seem the obvious person to write about the workings of the Philological Society in Victorian London and Oxford—even with murder and insanity thrown in. But Simon Winchester (whose previous books include Prison Diary: Argentina and In Holy Terror, about the fighting in Northern Ireland) has always regarded the Oxford English Dictionary as not merely a tool but a joy. In reading about its making, he came across the story of “the madman” of his title “and saw . . . the possibilities that by telling the poignant and human tale of William Minor, I could perhaps create some kind of prism through which to view the greater and even more fascinating story of the history of English lexicography.”

About the Author

Linda Bridges

Ms. Bridges is the former editor-at-large of National Review.

Featured Tags

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, by Simon Winchester (HarperCollins, 242 pp, $22)

AT first glance, a hard-driving journalist and traveler to dangerous places would not seem the obvious person to write about the workings of the Philological Society in Victorian London and Oxford—even with murder and insanity thrown in. But Simon Winchester (whose previous books include Prison Diary: Argentina and In Holy Terror, about the fighting in Northern Ireland) has always regarded the Oxford English Dictionary as not merely a tool but a joy. In reading about its making, he came across the story of “the madman” of his title “and saw . . . the possibilities that by telling the poignant and human tale of William Minor, I could perhaps create some kind of prism through which to view the greater and even more fascinating story of the history of English lexicography.”