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

The national bestseller that chronicles the fascinating story of two extraordinary men and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary—now available in a limited Olive Edition.

“The linguistic detective story of the decade.”—William Safire, New York Times Magazine

Masterfully researched and eloquently written, 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 compilation of the OED began in 1857, it 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. |

Limited Edition

“I am the Governor of the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Dr Minor is most certainly here.”

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"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 Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum....includes a well-researched mini-history of the OED." - Publishers Weekly

"A marvelous, true story that few readers will have heard about." - Booklist

“A fascinating, spicy, learned tale.” - Richard Bernstein, New York Times

“An extraordinary tale, and Simon Winchester could not have told it better. . . . [He] has written a splendid book.” - The Economist

“Elegant and scrupulous.” - David Walton, New York Times Book Review

“I found The Professor and the Madman both enthralling and moving, in its brilliant reconstruction of a most improbable event: the major contributions made to the great Oxford English Dictionary by a deeply delusional, incarcerated 'madman,' and the development of a true friendship between him and the editor of the OED. One sees here the redemptive potential of work and love in even the most deeply, 'hopelessly,' psychotic.” - Oliver Sacks, M.D.

“Absolutely riveting.” - Will Self, The Times (London)

"Winchester has written a powerful account of the shifting foundations on which meaning is built, and the impoverishment of a language that could not describe or give peace to one of its makers." - Lithe Sebesta, New York Post

“Winchester’s history of the OED is brisk and entertaining” - Mark Rozzo, Washington Post Book World

“A brisk, gracefully executed work of popular intellectual history, a model of its kind.” - Washington Post

“There is much truth to be drawn [from The Professor and the Madman] about Victorian pride, the relation between language and the world, and the fine line between sanity and madness.” - Wall Street Journal

“Mr. Winchester deftly weaves . . . a narrative full of suspense, pathos and humor. . . . Elegant . . . a vivid parable, in the spirit of Nabokov and Borges.” - Wall Street Journal

"It's a story for readers who know the joy of words and can appreciate side trips through the history of dictionaries and marvel at the idea that when Shakespeare wrote, there we no dictionaries to consult.... Winchester, a British Journalist who's written 12 other books, combines a reporter's eye for detail with a historian's sense of scale. His writing is droll and eloquent" - Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today

"Madness, violence, arcane obsessions, weird learning, ghastly comedy, all set out in an atmosphere of po-aced, high neo-Gothic. The geographical span is wide, from Dickensian London to Florida's Pensacola Bay, from the beaches at Trincomalee to the Civil War battlefields of the United States. . . . It is a wonderful story." - John Banville, Literary Review

"Mr. Winchester deftly weaves...a narrative full of suspense, pathos and humor.... In this elegant book the writer has created a vivid parable, in the spirit of Nabokov and Borges. There is much truth to be drawn from it, about Victorian pride, the relation between language and the world, and the fine line between sanity and madness." - Daniel Mark Epstein, Wall Street Journal

“Remarkably readable, this chronicle of lexicography roams from the great dictionary itself to hidden nooks in the human psyche that sometimes house the motives for murder, the sources for sanity, and the blueprint for creativity.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“As enthralling as a good story can be and as informative as any history aspires to be.” - Linda Bridges, National Review

“Superb.” - William Safire, New York Times Magazine