Rating: 
Summary: The department of redundancy department
Review: Highly speculative. Some background on the OED (besides just the madman bit). I found the book a fountain of psychobabble and repeated stories tied together by (justified) reverence of the OED and colorful vocabulary.
Rating: 
Summary: A strange but entertaining mix
Review: My "literary group" chose this as one of our books to discuss. Most of them were very disappointed by it, but I enjoyed it tremendously. Winchester tackled this true story in a unique way, telling us first about the separate lives of Dr. Minor (the madman) and James Murray (the professor), and then eventually weaving them together. Murray was one of the main editors of the Oxford English Dictionary, and Dr. Minor, originally a medical doctor for the U.S. Army, was one of the main volunteer contributors of definitions. As the unfortunate doctor was confined to a mental institution, such a project helped give him a reason for living. One of the reasons I enjoyed this book is that for much of my early life I was in a mileau that included mental patients. My grandfather worked at a large mental hospital, and my mother grew up in a house in a small community on the hospital grounds. My childhood was thus full of fascinating stories about the patients. Then my mother became a nurse and administrator at another large mental hospital, and I'd often visit there, viewing the hospital as a vibrant although rather strange community. The story of Dr. Minor, then, seems straight out of my childhood. Another fascinating aspect of this book for me is the history of the OED. Up until that time, dictionaries had been compiled by one man, e.g., Samuel Johnson, and with limited scope, e.g. "hard" or unusual words. The lexicographer who first envisioned the OED, Richard Trench, wanted it to be a record of *all* words, including the words' histories and changing usage, by citing published examples of how each word has been used with various nuances. Such a monumental undertaking, he knew, could not be performed by one or a few people, nor by academics alone. He thus proposed that it be a democratic venture, calling upon legions of volunteer readers and contributors. Winchester stresses how this honours the freedom of language, that hard and fast rules are not what is important about English, but that we all can be inventors and changers of this wonderful language. I would highly recommend this book to anyone fascinated by language, and anyone interested in the potential of people who many be mentally ill.
Rating:
Summary: a bit overly dramatic at times
Review: I don't want to level any devasting criticism at this book since I very much liked it, but I did think that Winchester overdoes things at times with his Victorian mystery stuff. I wish I could remember the name of the first book I read about James Murry and the OED because I liked it more. It wasn't written like a novel, but it provided more of the linguistic background to James Murray and his quest to make the world's greatest dictionary. Still, I enjoyed this book for its subject -- how can anyone who loves language not find the story of the making of the OED interesting? Except for my minor criticism about the oversensationalizing, it's a fine read about a fascinating topic. Now that I have my own OED, I'd recommend acquiring one of these too.
Rating: 
Summary: Words
Review: This a book of moderate interest. The content could well have been covered well in a New Yorker or Atlantic length article. Some stories appear more than once. Several postscripts seem to bear out the notion that the author had need to fill more pages than the story demanded. Also annoying where several anachronisms, such as traveling in the Indian Ocean on tramp steamers in the 1830's and "switching on the lights" in the 1870's. Overall it is an amusing read, but not of four or five star quality
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional Entertainment Value
Review: Although I don't think this book has much by way of posing any particularly recondite questions (though it did lead to me formulating some of my own), it was entertaining nonetheless. It is the story of a Civil War Captain, Dr. Minor, trained in medicine at Yale, who eventually loses his marbles and is committed. After being released from the Government Hospital for the Insane, he embarks on a transatlantic voyage to England, where he ends up shooting a stranger one night due to his delusions of persecution. Being declared not-guilty by reason of insanity, he is committed to an institution for almost the rest of his life, though during that time he becomes involved in aiding the compilation of the OED, an undertaking requiring the assistance of numerous volunteers. Though Dr. Minor suffered from interminable delusions of persecution, he had a far amount of background in languages and literature which made him one of the most valuable volunteers. If you have an interest in language and literature, it would likely be engrossing- at first glance surprising when a typical preconception would be that anyone involved in such an arduous and monotonous task as forming the largest dictionary in the English language could possibly have an interesting biography
Rating:
Summary: Professor and the Madman
Review: This book is great in two different aspects. One, It shows how the brutality of the American army, back then, could scar a person for life causing them to have a psychological disorder. Two, how the great Oxford dictionary was made and the time and work that was required to make it.
Rating:
Summary: The Professor and the Madman
Review: This book is great in a historical aspect. It shows how the brutality of the American army back then could scar a person for life. This book also gives a good idea on psychological disorders.
Rating:
Summary: A Few Nice Tidbits + Lots of Padding
Review: This wildly popular account of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary is moderately interesting, and reads like an expanded magazine piece. The main story is of two men: the English professor who shepherds the dictionary project, and the American madman who is perhaps its most prolific contributor. There are lots of interesting tidbits including a capsule history of dictionaries, and some excellent research has gone into the book, and while it's a nice story, it ended up feeling a little fluffy to me in the end. Still, worth reading if you are into words.
Rating:
Summary: The Professor and the Madman
Review: I agree with most of the positive comments on the book and certainly enjoyed the facinating story. However, as a professional editor, I was not impressed with the publisher's shoddy proofreading and copyediting of the book. While reading it, I found myself continually stumbling over typos and obvious errors in grammar and punctuation. Now, I'm sure that many people reading my comments will think that I'm just being picky. But, don't you think it's ironic that a book that focuses on one of the greatest, most scholarly literary efforts in history should undergo such careless proofreading? Just imagine what James Murray would think. I believe he'd be horrified at such inattention.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly riveting
Review: From Joan Mazza, author of DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF, DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE, FROM DREAMS TO DISCOVERY and THINGS THAT TICK ME OFF. This is an engaging tale about the unlikely connection over many years between two men as they cooperated in the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. The details of how the dictionary was assembled-in the days before even the simplest of computer technology-and the history of the people involved held my interest. What could have simply been a dry description had all the drama and pathos of a literary novel instead. Simon Winchester shows how someone can have a pocket of mental illness and still be healthy and productive in other ways.
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