The teacher and the madman - the story of the murder and madness and the origin of the Oxford English Dictionary

About the teacher and the madman - the story of murder and madness and the origin of the Oxford English Dictionary - Simon Winchester: Behind the project of creating the Oxford English Dictionary - which began in 1857 - lies an extraordinary story of genius and madness and obsession of two remarkable men whose efforts led to the publication of that dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary was one of the most ambitious projects ever. During the compilation of that dictionary, the supervising committee led by Professor James Murray was shocked when they discovered that one man, Dr. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand definitions to the dictionary. But their astonishment was unmatched by what they were about to discover when the committee insisted on honoring Dr. Minor - a veteran of the American Civil War - who was an inmate in a mental hospital for criminally insane.