The Professor and the Madman - Simon Winchester

Title: The Professor and the Madman
Author: Simon Winchester
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 230
Date read: August, 2010

"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.

This is one of those weird books where the subject matter is extremely interesting, but the writing only so-so. I'm glad I stuck it out though, because the descriptions of what it takes to complete a reference book as complicated as th Oxford English Dictionary was absolutely fascinating! It must have been an insanely daunting task, and I'm impressed that they didn't give up from shear overwhelmedness (yes, that's a word ;) ).

The story of the madman himself actually didn't interest me all that much, although it did make me wonder how much of a difference there is between the treatment of the criminally insane now and back then.