num_pages: 242
description: The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
language: English
title: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
titlecomplete: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
characters: Sir James Murray, Dr. William Chester Minor
genres: Historical, True Crime, Books About Books, History, Audiobook, Biography, Biography Memoir, Language, Linguistics, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 115233
places: United Kingdom
awards: awardedAt: 915177600000
name: Audie Award
category: Nonfiction, Abridged, awardedAt: 883641600000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: General Nonfiction
publisher: HarperPerennial