Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Professor & the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity & the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

The Professor & the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity & the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
reviewed on + 92 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


This is the story of two remarkable men whose genius and obsessions led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. As definitions were collected, 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 was an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.