'The Professor And The Madman\r'

'The Professor and the maniac, write by Simon Winchester, is a biography ab stunned the qualification of the Oxford side mental lexicon. Winchester, who is an author, journalist, broadcaster and foreign correspondent, has written for many an(prenominal) magazines and latespapers distributed worldwide. In an interview between Winchester and a soldiers of C-SPAN, Winchester was asked where the idea for the oblige came, he replies Well, it came to me in a rather bizarre way. I was reading a harbor on lexicography in the bath bingle morning, as one does, I suppose, just in the number one place breakfast, and it was a maintainâ€a wonderful book called â€Å"Chasing The Sun” by a man called Jonathan Green.\r\nAnd it had a referenceâ€it said, `Readers will be familiar with the rare story of Dr. W. C. little, an American lunatic murderer, who was a prodigiously energetic contributor to the OED. ’ And I remember seance up in the bath, Archimedeslike, drippi ng and saying, `Well, I do nothing about this. ’ Winchesters main foundation for this book is to clarify the tale of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary The formation of the Oxford English Dictionary began in 1857 and took 70 years to finish. Tens of thousands of souls organized the expansive language into 414,825 pack definitions.\r\nThe story begins with the grisly murder of George Merrett, by William Chester kid the former U. S. Army officer and qualified surgeon. On February 17th of 1872 in the early morning William humble had been sleeping, when he awoke to some(prenominal) noises of someone in his flat. He sat up and saw someone standing(a) at the foot of his bed. He proceeded to chase the individual into the street, and shot at the person as they act to flee. He ended up shooting the first person that came into view apparently, and this person was George Merrett. Merrett had n ever so met W. C small fry and had been heading home after a long day at wor k.\r\nW. C pincer was arrested. While in prison, he appeared to act exceptionally irrelevant. One of the guards told the jury that kid accused him of stipendiary mountain to enter his board and molest him fleck he slept. This evidence clearly showed that W. C minuscule was insane and was sent to the Asylum for the Criminally Insane, Broadmoore. The resolve stated that he would remain there until her Majestys merriment be known. Professor James Murray, an extraordinarily ameliorate former schoolmaster and bank clerk, sent out an announcement about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, petition for literary contributions.\r\nFrom his cell in Broadmoore, secondary came crosswise this announcement and began contributing examples from his massive collection of new and scarce antique books. Minor had an enormous collection of books in his cell, which were not available to Murray and the staff, where the phraseary was beingness created. Thousand of neat and well-writ ten quotes and examples came from Minor over several(prenominal) years to Oxford. Murray was solo fifty miles away from where Minor was living, and had no idea that Minor was committed to an asylum. On several occasions Minor had been asked to visit Murray In Oxford, where they could meet and discuss the dictionary.\r\nMinor declined all invitations, without an explanation, and only an apology. After being rebuffed several times, Murray offered to visit Minor and Minor accepted the offer. Upon arrival Murray discovered that Minor was not a doctor of the asylum as he had assumed, but a resident. Murray was shocked, but that didnt counsel him from visiting Minor. Although Minor constantly complained about people molesting him while he slept, people breaking into his room at night, and his personal possessions being vandalized Murray ignored the strange comments and went on with his visits.\r\nMinors stepbrother began writing appeals to the court, ask that his brother be allowed to transfer to a hospital in the United States. James Murray, who spent more than than 40 years editing the dictionary, and up until 1910 wrote and visited Minor regularly, until Minor was released and allowed to go back to the U. S. On July sixteenth 1915 Murray died, surrounded by friends and relatives. In November 1915 Minor wrote to noblewoman Murray, offering all his books to the Scriptorium. On Friday March twenty-sixth 1920 Minor died from a cold that developed into bronchopneumonia.\r\nThe English Oxford Dictionary took eight more years to be completed. On New Years Eve of 1927 its end was announced. The Professor and the madman is a wonderfully written biography. Before each chapter was a word that specify the whole chapter. Most of the book was in chronological order of magnitude, except for the parts where the author backtracked in order to elaborate. The postscript and authors note gave a bit of insight on where he got his idea to write the book, and some of his resou rces. Unlike The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison, the diction was easy to follow, and storyline was far from depressing.\r\nWinchester was very straightforward, and turn a little known tale into a well-written and very compelling book. I had my doubts about this exceptional book. I got this book, when the report was first assigned. I essay to read, but found the first chapter dreadfully boring, and returned the book to the bookstore. I forgot about the report until I was reminded a week ago. I went to go and find a different book, but had no luck, so I bought the book again. I am glad that I did end up with this book. I enjoyed The Professor and the Madman immensely. I have no recollection of ever hearing about the authors of the Oxford English Dictionary.\r\n'