“The Professor and the Madman…is the linguistic detective story of the decade…. OR listen to the audiobook FREE with Audible’s Trial (check eligibility) More reviews of The Professor and The Madman The highlight for me was the story’s underlying positivity and the author’s honest and overwhelming appreciation of the important contribution Murray and Minor’s special relationship had on the lives of others.īOOK RATING: The Story 4 / 5 The Writing 4 / 5 Get your copy of The Professor and The Madman from: I commend Winchester’s handling of the subject matter of mental illness with both objectivity and sensitivity. My only criticism is there were a couple of instances where Winchester’s personal enthusiasm for the subject matter led to him labouring a point. I thoroughly enjoyed learning of the strange twists of fate that impacted the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and lovely stories explaining the origins of commonly words used such as ‘serendipity’. In the audio version the immense passion Winchester conveys for his research on this important piece of history is infectious. In The Professor and the Madman Simon Winchester regales us with a telling of history that reads like fiction.

Regular readers of my blog will be aware of my appreciation of words, their meaning and their usage over history.

I rarely read non-fiction for pleasure but this synopsis immediately intrigued me. The Professor and the Madman is the unforgettable story of the madness and genius that contributed to one of the greatest literary achievements in the history of English letters.ĭisclosure: If you click a link in this post and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. It was then that Murray would finally learn the truth about Minor – that, in addition to being a masterly wordsmith, he was also an insane murderer locked up in Broadmoor, England’s harshest asylum for criminal lunatics. After numerous refusals from Minor to visit his home in Oxford, Murray set out to find him. William Chester Minor, an American surgeon who had served in the Civil War, was one of the most prolific contributor s to the dictionary, sending thousands of neat, hand-written quotations from his home. Professor James Murray was the distinguished edit or of the OED project. Hidden within the rituals of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary is a fascinating mystery.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester is a true story that reads like fiction.

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