Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
    The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
    The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
    Audiobook7 hours

    The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

    Written by Simon Winchester

    Narrated by Simon Winchester

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    A New York Times Notable Book  

    The Professor and the Madman 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 making of the OED was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, was stunned to discover that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. But their surprise would pale in comparison to what they were about to discover when the committee insisted on honoring him. For Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

    Masterfully researched and eloquently written, The Professor and the Madman “is the linguistic detective story of the decade.” (William Safire, New York Times Magazine)

    This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 13, 2004
    ISBN9780060756321
    Author

    Simon Winchester

    Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, The Map That Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa, all of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He resides in western Massachusetts.

    More audiobooks from Simon Winchester

    Related to The Professor and The Madman

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Nazi Actor Next Door

      Jun 1, 2022

      Deal in Kent has been nominated as ‘one of the best places to live’ in the United Kingdom for the third consecutive year, according to a survey in the Times. The town has transitioned from being a rather rough resort back in the 1950s – natives remem

      3 min read

    • Article

      'Black Tudors' Reveals a Surprising and Overlooked Chapter of History

      Nov 16, 2017

      Hidden in British archives and parish records are the identities of dozens of black people who lived in England during Tudor times.

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Warning To The Fortean

      Jul 14, 2022

      A Warning To The Fortean
      9 min read

    • Article

      The King Of Westminster

      May 24, 2023

      The King Of Westminster
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Nov 15, 2023

      At the October Oldie Literary Lunch, we were lucky enough to host Sir Don McCullin, the world's greatest war photographer. Don was talking about his new book, Journeys Across Roman Asia Minor, published with a commentary by Barnaby Rogerson. He says

      4 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Apr 16, 2020

      If the interview with Simon Jenkins in your March issue (A Welsh Tragedy?) is anything to go by, I suspect his recent Radio 4 documentary – controversially entitled Wales: A Twentieth-Century Tragedy? – was largely based on flimsy anecdotal evidence.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Road To rebellion

      Nov 24, 2022

      Road To rebellion
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Supreme Act Of Trust

      Aug 10, 2022

      The Supreme Act Of Trust
      5 min read

    • Article

      Finding Facts In Fiction

      Mar 12, 2021

      Finding Facts In Fiction
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Place Worth Fighting For

      Mar 30, 2022

      Daisy Dunn (Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, £20) ON one of his lighter poetry-writing mornings, Christmas 1944, T. S. Eliot wrote this: Mr Maurice Bowra Gets sourer and sourer,Having been in a hurryTo succeed Gilbert MurrayAnd is now (poor soul) at the bott

      5 min read

    • Article

      Q&A

      Jun 9, 2022

      Q&A
      4 min read

    • Article

      Going Dutch

      Dec 8, 2021

      THIS work covers a period neatly book-ended by two sea journeys: those of Matilda, William the Conqueror’s Flemish-speaking wife, and the Dutch William of Orange in 1688. Between the two dates, the fortunes of Anglo-Dutch literary relations, like tho

      5 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Jul 8, 2021

      Anniversaries
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Vigil In Westwood Lodge

      May 19, 2022

      A Vigil In Westwood Lodge
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Past Is A Foreign Country

      Jan 26, 2022

      Penelope Corfield (Yale University Press £25) PENELOPE CORFIELD has set herself an ambitious task: how to distil the complex, overarching narratives of the British-Irish 18th century—from shifting dynasties, multiple national identities and parliam

      5 min read

    • Article

      Spotlight On The Black Country

      Sep 28, 2023

      “BUT LET ME SAY BEFORE IT has to go,” proclaimed Wystan Auden, “it’s the most lovely country that I know.” Which part of England was he describing? Full marks for “the Black Country”. Brought up in Solihull, on the bear-and-ragged-staff side of the s

      3 min read

    • Article

      Crazy For Cider

      Aug 25, 2021

      JAMES CROWDEN is a poet, shepherd and total cider nut. In this, at least his third book on the subject, there is no other drink but that it suffers from his passion for cider, apple brandy and cider’s delicate, sweet sister, perry—and almost no momen

      5 min read

    • Article

      City Of A Scandal

      Jan 4, 2023

      City Of A Scandal
      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Aug 31, 2023

      Reading about Roger Mortimer's 14thcentury escape from the Tower of London (The King of Folly, August) reminded me of another remarkable breakout from the fortress – with equally dramatic consequences. In April 1660, John Lambert, the Roundhead major

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Professor and The Madman

    4/5

    250 ratings158 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Interesting tale, though I didn't appreciate the writing style as much as I would have liked.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating
    • 4/5
      As someone who never uses dictionaries because she finds them dull and loaded with complicated abbreviations, I thought Winchester's story would be much the same. However, I truly enjoyed getting to know Professor Murray and W.C. Minor; their long distance relationship by letter was focused on apt quotations for well-defined words, but it's apparent their correspondence meant much more to both men.
    • 4/5
      Who would have thought that the writing of a dictionary could be so interesting?Winchester takes the reader on a journey through many parallel histories-the history of dictionaries, the American Civil War, the history of some poor neighborhoods in London, and the story of three men who could easily have been forgotten. Murray, Minor, and Merrett (I think we can all be forgiven for getting them mixed up a couple of times while reading this) are each treated as interesting characters in this book, with their life stories explained. The author also puts to rest of the apocryphal tales that sprung up over this incident, including the story that opens his book.The author also does an excellent job of remind the reader several times that, while a great debt is to be paid Minor for all his work on the dictionary, it came at the cost of a man's life.This is a well-written book, scholarly without being pedantic. Provided the reader enjoys 19th century history, a British tone, and dictionaries, this is an enjoyable read. If any of those don't pique your interest, you'll wonder why anyone would bother reading past chapter 4.
    • 4/5
      Who’d believe this story if you’d just heard it from a friend: one of the biggest contributors to the huge Oxford English Dictionary was an inmate in an asylum for the insane. Simon Winchester tells the tale and shares lots of fun words from the OED in the process. A great nonfiction story.
    • 4/5
      It is refreshing to find a story that puts into the mainstream what might have otherwise remained a footnote in history. Simon Winchester, in The Professor and the Madman, does just that and gives the unprovoked murder of George Merrett in 1871 the recognition such a crime deserves. Not to be overlooked is Merrett’s assassin, William Chester Minor, who Winchester paints as the tortured genius whose mental instability benefitted the literary feat better known as the Oxford English Dictionary. Winchester’s thorough research of Minor’s past, as well as his relationship to the creation of the OED, reflects the importance this individual played in the first truly comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Without Minor’s contributions from his solitary cell in Broadmoor asylum, the dictionary might not have become the authoritative behemoth it now is. But Winchester does not just focus on Minor’s literary contributions; he also focuses, with sympathy, on the unhappy life Minor led as a permanent ward of insane asylums. Winchester demonstrates how little was understood about mental illness and how Minor suffered as a result. Had the medical world known just a little more about the disease we today term Schizophrenia, then Minor might have perhaps lived a more dignified, and perhaps independent, life. That Winchester dedicates the book to George Merrett illustrates his understanding of the historical implications of what might simply seem a senseless death. But Winchester stresses that without George Merrett, William Chester Minor might not have found himself in the sad circumstances that afforded him the opportunity to contribute to the Oxford English Dictionary. Without George Merrett, the English language might be without the OED, which would be sad indeed.
    • 2/5
      I found this book to be rather annoying. There's a certain breathlessness to the retelling that just didn't grab me. There are also certain authors who can digress more interestingly than others. I did, however, like the definitions from the OED chosen as introductions for each chapter. It does inspire me to want to delve into the OED. But I will never have time.
    • 4/5
      An entertaining, easy to read, fast paced, (non-fiction) tale of how W.C. Minor with schizophrenia (most likely) helped Sir Murray write large portions of the Oxford English Dictionary. Minor's story is sad, and sad all around, but at least out of his 'insane asylum' incarceration, and his mental disease and the unfortunate murder of George Merrett, a lot of good came out of it - in the sake of his extreme help in quote gathering and writing for the OED, without him it most likely wouldn't have gotten completed. Even still it took some 70-71 years for it to get accomplished.
    • 5/5
      This was the April book for our Library Book Club. Wow! This was a very well written book. I found it to be very interesting and informative. The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary took place before many mental illnesses were officially diagnosed. I found it very interesting that one of the main contributors was a Civil War veteran, Dr. W. C. Minor, a medical doctor who had committed murder and was an inmate at an English asylum for the criminally insane. Today he would probably be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and treated with medication. Dr. Minor’s story is tragic but it is amazing that he was able to turn his madness into brilliance in his contribution to the Oxford English Dictionary. He answered the call when Professor Murray sent out requests for contributors to read several books and contribute page number references to words found in recommended books that should be added to the dictionary. This was a huge undertaking. He loved to read and both he and Professor James Murray were obsessed with creating the Oxford English Dictionary. This is an amazing dictionary and I have used the online version often in my work as a quality assurance coordinator. This is an amazing story and well worth the read.
    • 5/5
      I️ don’t recall exactly where I️ picked up this book, but I️ remember being thoroughly intrigued by the title. And as it has sat in my room, it has continued to call to me, until last month I️ finally decided to delve in. Oh how glad I️ am that I️ let the title draw me in. As a writer and a lover of words, I️ gladly read anything about words, but this was such an unexpected and incredible story to discover in connection to such a seemingly mundane thing as a dictionary. In addition to enjoying the slow unraveling of the full meaning behind the title, I️ found I️ learned quite a bit about dictionaries, words, and obviously the creation of the great OED itself. I️ certainly have a new appreciation for the grand undertaking as well as for those people who contributed to its creation. I️ highly recommend this book to anyone who has even the remotest interest in words, the OED, or the unexpected ways people find themselves as key players in large and important undertakings.
    • 4/5
      Simon Winchester takes the reader on an adventure through the life of Minor and Murray, along with many others, throughout the production the Oxford English Dictionary. Winchester's writing engages the reader until the last page, somehow finding the ever difficult balance between strict adherence to the history and the winding story that easily connects the reader to a story that is over a century old. Very well done, the only complaints are a slight repetition of basic details, but the writing is not detracted from.
    • 3/5
      I felt like this was sensationalized too much in parts. Granted, that's why I read the book in the first place ("What?! A madman wrote the OED?!"), but I wanted Winchester to suppose less and tell more. I think the content is rich enough in drama and information to support itself without the author dropping his oar in and imagining the feelings of those involved or how things must have smelled. Perhaps these interjections were few and far between, but for me, they were extremely noticeable and vexing.

      In the end though, I enjoyed learning about the OED.
    • 4/5
      The evolution of the disctionary and the crazy guy who built it. Fascinating.
    • 3/5
      The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
      288 pages

      ★★★ ½

      The compilation of the OED began in 1857; it was an ambitious project that would take 70 years to complete. Within that time, one contributor would put in thousands of hours and words – with time it would be learned that this contributor, William Minor was an intelligent doctor…who was also locked up in a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. This book follows the life of the doctor, the professor who was editor of the OED at the time and the making of the huge dictionary.

      I will start off by saying I loved the subject of this book. I like any book that can take a little known, or forgotten, part of history and bring it back into light but the question is can the author pull those subjects off? In this case, I will say that Simon Winchester pulled off a well written, interesting book. With that being said, I am not particularly a fan of the author. I have read a few of his books and this is the first I came across that was interesting enough and written well enough not to put me into snoozefest as soon as I open the book. Also, the author rarely references his studies and that irritates me so much, if I don’t know where you got your sources, I have trouble believing the context (if I didn’t reference my material in college, it was an automatic F!). And I question any historian who can pull off a book every year or two – researching and writing these books is a loooong process if done correctly, even if you have minion running around to help with research.

      So my final thought on the book? Fascinating subject and I will say actually worth the read if you are into history or biographies; however the author’s lack of references and need to just become a “popular” history writer leaves a poor taste in my mouth and caused me to easily knock a star off my rating.
    • 3/5
      Towards the end, this one took a turn I wasn't expecting, but overall an interesting, if only a bit sensational, read.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite types of books.
      History of beginning of Oxford Dictionary.
      Not something that had ever crossed my mind, but now I wonder why not ?
      Interesting interactions with the "Mad Man" and the unfolding of his story.
      A Recommend.
      Read in 2009.
    • 5/5
      this is the kind of story that you would never believe is true if it weren't written by such a master as Simon Winchester. A great read.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful history and insight into the capture of and dynamic of the English language . Superb narration.
    • 4/5
      Learned a lot about words. Starting with peotomy.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating story, even if not an etymologist.
    • 5/5
      This book was excellently written. It kept me interested from the beginning to the end. I had no idea how recently the Oxford English Dictionary came into being. We read today and if there is a word we do not understand, we pick up the dictionary to look it up. It was interesting to know that Shakespeare did not have this luxury.

      The characters in the book evolve nicely. The book left me wondering what the life of W.C. Minor was really like. How is it that he contributed so much to the Oxford English Dictionary from an insane asylum. I was left wondering what the emotions must have been as Sir James Murray realized that he was dealing with a madman in the creation of the dictionary, yet W.C. Minor's submissions to the dictionary were near perfection. Other volunteers that contributed were not as precise.

      This book will entertain you in the history of how the Oxford English Dictionary was created. Who was involved? How long did it really take? What methods did they use to document all those words? Does it continue today? It was a fascinating read!

      In line with the story of creating the dictionary, there were several words that were challenging and needed to be looked up for their precise meaning for the story. I don't see this as a negative but it did remind me of my limited vernacular. I hope that whomever reads this tome will find it as interesting as I did. It taught me that even something as minor in every day life, something we usually do not give much thought to, such as the dictionary, really shouldn't be taken for granted.
    • 4/5
      The pretext for this book is rather slight – one of the significant volunteer contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary was, although an intelligent and educated man, also an inmate of an insane asylum, confined for a murder committed while in the throes of a schizophrenic paranoid delusion.
      While, as a revelation, this fact may be less than earth-shattering, Winchester uses this story of the inmate, Dr. W.C. Minor, the man he killed, George Merrett, and the main editor of the OED, Dr. James Murray, as a vehicle for all kinds of interesting details – he goes on quite a number of tangents, but they're always immensely well-written and fascinating! Winchester isn't afraid to stray from dry, historical writing – he definitely makes guesses, fleshes things out for colorful effect – but his research is also obviously thoroughly done, and he also stops short of fictifying (ok, that's not a word, but I think it should be) his topic – it's always made clear when his scenarios are theoretical.
      I'd highly recommend this book not only for those interested in dictionaries and lexicography, but for anyone interested in Victorian England, the Civil War, treatment of the mentally ill, or any of a number of other topics.
    • 3/5
      This is an amusing account of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, a mental marvel enjoyed by millions. Now, since the OED is online, the massive book is gaining many new fans. The particular episode described here is also an illustration that a form of mental illness is no great bar to some forms of scholarship. I'll reread, but under its real Title "the PROFESSOR and the Madman"! (can someone fix this, please?)
    • 5/5
      A book with a lot of scholarship and a lot of heart. One one hand it is a simple trail of the history of the relish language. Then the store of the human beings who worked on it is much more interesting and tragic.
    • 4/5
      Audiobook narrated by the authorThe subtitle is all the synopsis you need: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English DictionaryJames Murray is the professor, a learned man who became the editor of the OED. Dr William C Minor is the madman, an American Civil-War veteran and surgeon whose paranoid delusions caused him to commit murder and resulted in his life-long commitment to an asylum for the criminally insane. Yet …Simon Winchester crafts a compelling non-fiction narrative. I previously read his book on the explosion of Krakatoa, which was interesting, but I felt bogged down in detail. This is a much shorter book. Though it’s clear that Winchester did significant research and he includes details of how the OED was conceived, and the laborious efforts to get volunteers to submit citations to support word usage definitions, he never lost the story arc of these two remarkable men. He captured my attention on page one and held it throughout. Winchester narrates the audiobook himself and he does a fine job. I could listen to his British accent all day, especially pronouncing the marvelously rich vocabulary he employs. As a bonus, at the end of the audio book there is an interview between Winchester and the OED’s current editor, John Simpson. THAT was equally as interesting to me as the main story.
    • 5/5
      This is my second time reading the Professor and the Madman and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed the first time around. This book was on my library Non-Fiction Book Club Reading List for July. I was fascinated by the fact that William Shakespeare did not have access to a dictionary because there was not one available for the English language. A dictionary was not available until Samuel Johnson and there were many great British writers like Dafoe, Swift who wished to fix the English language and ban words like bamboozle, uppish and couldn't. Many dictionaries came out but it was Dr. Murray from Oxford and several others who set out to not only document every English word but give use and context of words with the use of literature including the Bible. It took nine years to put out the first nine volumes of the dictionary all of which would not have been possible had it not been for Dr Minor. Minor a very well educated man and doctor was prolific in the number of words and information that he submitted for the dictionary. He found an ad for the project in books he ordered from London booksellers.

      This book is more about the history of the project and the key men involved that gave the dictionary life. Dr Murray was our Oxford professor and Dr. Minor was of course the Madman. In understanding the creation of the dictionary it is important to know the men behind the project. Dr. Minor was an American who served during the Civil War as a Army surgeon. After the war the doctor found himself in London trying to find his sanity. All was going well until one night when he murdered a man in cold blood. He was tried and found insane, he was sentenced to Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum until the monarchs "Pleasure Be Known" whenever that may be.

      There is one scene that will leave the reader a little squeamish but overall a fascinating read.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating book about a book that has shaped our world. Makes you appreciate how much our language shapes our reality. And how much work went into making it as good as it became (a standard).
    • 4/5
      woooeeee how bout that self-inflicted peotomy?
    • 5/5
      Wonderful book! Beautifully read by author. Very interesting, riveting and relatively unknown account about two men - one a brilliant madman and murder and the other the driving force in building the greatest dictionary in the world.
    • 5/5
      I love words. I love Winchester. This is a memorable book about the writing of the Oxford Dictionary. Whether scholar or convict, the dictionary takes shape and Winchester guides us through the process