The Professor and the Madman

This is a fascinating true story well told about a murderous nutcase who contributed important entries to the original and monumental OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY*. The author has a listener-friendly voice, even though he seems to be fighting off a bug in his throat. He reads as if late for an appointment. Nonetheless, he gives us a satisfying listen. Y.R. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

August 31, 1998
The Oxford English Dictionary used 1,827,306 quotations to help define its 414,825 words. Tens of thousands of those used in the first edition came from the erudite, moneyed American Civil War veteran Dr. W.C. Minor--all from a cell at the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Vanity Fair contributor Winchester (River at the Center of the World) has told his story in an imaginative if somewhat superficial work of historical journalism. Sketching Minor's childhood as a missionary's son and his travails as a young field surgeon, Winchester speculates on what may have triggered the prodigious paranoia that led Minor to seek respite in England in 1871 and, once there, to kill an innocent man. Pronounced insane and confined at Broadmoor with his collection of rare books, Minor happened upon a call for OED volunteers in the early 1880s. Here on more solid ground, Winchester enthusiastically chronicles Minor's subsequent correspondence with editor Dr. J.A.H. Murray, who, as Winchester shows, understood that Minor's endless scavenging for the first or best uses of words became his saving raison d'etre, and looked out for the increasingly frail man's well-being. Winchester fills out the story with a well-researched mini-history of the OED, a wonderful demonstration of the lexicography of the word "art" and a sympathetic account of Victorian attitudes toward insanity. With his cheeky way with a tale ("It is a brave and foolhardy and desperate man who will perform an autopeotomy" he writes of Minor's self-mutilation), Winchester celebrates a gloomy life brightened by devotion to a quietly noble, nearly anonymous task. Photos not seen by PW. Agent, Peter Matson. BOMC selection.

The cover displays a sepia daguerreotype of an older man with a white flowing beard and a pillbox skullcap, leaning back thoughtfully in a garden chair. This is Dr. William Chester Minor, the schizophrenic physician-murderer who helped write the Oxford English Dictionary while an inmate at the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Simon Jones narrates this bizarre but true story with a rich mahogany baritone and an appropriately snooty English accent. His wide dramatic range is well adapted to this tale, which spans the extremes of reason and sanity. Though abridged, the transitions are seamless and lushly orchestrated with strains of imperial Brittania. Here's a Victorian mystery in which the truth is stranger than fiction. J.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

January 1, 2000
The Oxford English Dictionary still stands as the distinctive and definitive history of the English Language. First suggested in 1857, this work proposed to present the history of every word by quoting the passage from literature where each was first used. Nearly 22 years later, the stalled project finally got moving with the selection of Dr. James Murray as editor. Handbills were distributed requesting volunteer readers to locate quotations and begin assembling word lists. One such flyer found its way to the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane in Crowthorne, Berkshire, where Dr. William C. Minor, who was committed in 1872 for murder, occupied two large cells. Minor would prove to be one of the most prolific contributors to the OED, submitting over 10,000 quotations. For nearly 20 years, Murray and Minor corresponded regularly regarding the finer points of their lexicographical endeavors. With the book nearly half completed, Murray felt it was important to personally meet and thank him. Winchester does a superb job of weaving the historical facts of murder, madness, and scholarly pursuit into a fitting tribute to the remarkable OED. As the reader of his own work, his voice perfectly evokes Victorian England. Highly recommended for all libraries.--Gloria Maxwell, Penn Valley Community Coll., Kansas City, MO

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