Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT - I only wish I could give it 6 stars
Review: I'm an author of numerous published books, consultant, etc., and I implore you to read this marvelous, marvelous book by one of our most talented authors. The story is great unto itself, but I believe only Mr. Wichester could take what could easily have been written as a somewhat drab tomb on this intellectually challenged subject and make it into an adventure from which one learns more than just the overwhelming story about how the Oxford English Dictionary came into being. Take your time when reading this book and marvel in all you will find within it. And no, this is not a paid for endorsement!
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Summary: Concise history of the OED
Review: Immediately after I finished undergraduate school, some thirty years ago, I joined a book club, finally free to read for pleasure once again. In exchange for ordering x-number of books and promising to buy several more over the coming year, I received a bonus: a micro-print edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, two large blue volumes with print just large enough that the naked eye could recognize it as print, but small enough that one could not read it comfortably without the magnifying glass that came in its own box and drawer at the top of the box. Although I was familiar with the OED, this was my first extended exposure to its riches. I was fascinated with the many illustrative quotes drawn from English literature. What surprises me now is that I had so little curiosity about who collected all those quotes. Who read all the books necessary to find all those sentences? And how did they catalogue them?Simon Winchester answers both questions (volunteers all over the world to the first, and specially built pigeon holes to the second) and many, many more in his short, but informative "The Meaning of Everything." In lucid prose, with just enough humorous anecdote to moisten what could have been dry facts, he traces the history of the OED from its inception in a speech to the Philological Society in 1857 to its first complete printing in 1928 and then through its various revisions and expansions, including my micro-print edition. Along the way, he drops in character sketches of some of the major players, describes some of the major predecessor dictionaries, offers some almost unbelievable statistics and compares the OED to its peers (if one admits any exist) in other countries, always with a gentle sense of humor. He shows admirable discretion and restraint in selecting his examples. Rather than attempt sketches of all the various types of volunteers, for example, he contents himself with portraits of a few representatives, and includes a list of some of the more colorful and evocative names to stimulate the reader's imagination. If you use the OED regularly, or even occasionally, you may be as fascinated as I at how long it took to finish, and that the project was almost abandoned - several times. If you are not familiar with the OED, this history should be sufficient to entice you into finding a copy to peruse
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Summary: The Making of a Gargantuan Classic
Review: In a world of uncertainties, there is at least one human effort we can count on. For 75 years, if you have needed to know about an English word, you could turn to the _Oxford English Dictionary_ and you could expect enlightenment. You could know you were getting the authoritative low-down on any word you might come across, and you could not only find its definition, but its history of use given in quotations dating from its very first known appearance in print. For word fans, using the _OED_ is a joy, and every turn of the pages in its monumental volumes registers new affection and admiration for an unequalled intellectual accomplishment. Five years ago, Simon Winchester wrote _The Professor and the Madman_, an inspiring account of an inmate of an asylum who helped compile the _OED_'s words. It was a footnote to the _OED_'s larger history, and now, in _The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary_ (Oxford University Press), Winchester has given that history with the same humane and appreciative tone of his first book on the subject. Anyone who uses English ought to know the _OED_, and anyone who loves the _OED_ will find this book fascinating. Winchester gives a fine brief guide to the history of our language, and shows that by the Victorian age, philologists felt a comprehensive dictionary was needed. In 1842, the Philological Society settled on a proposal of a gargantuan dictionary, one that would have old words and new, one that would have every word and every meaning for that word. There was certainly something of power in such a scheme; great men and great ambitions would push the influence of English throughout the Empire, nay, the world, and increase the influence of Britain and her church. The story of the _OED_ is inextricably the story of the chief editor for the original edition, James Augustus Henry Murray. He was the son of a Scottish linen draper, and after a rural upbringing, he had to leave school at 14 because of poverty. However, by that time, he had developed precocious interests in geology, astronomy, archeology, and plenty of other fields, especially languages. He became a teacher at a boys' school in London, but in 1879, he was appointed editor of the dictionary project. Murray was not just a lexicographic and organizational genius, however, but a cheerful and persistent diplomat, who was adept at dealing with difficult personalities and making friends with those who were originally nuisances. He was also a family man whose very happy marriage produced eleven remarkable children. The children never had pocket money but by earning it in sorting dictionary slips. One wrote, "Hours & hours of our childhood were spent in this useful occupation. The motive actuating us was purely mercenary." One unforeseen result of this upbringing is that when the crossword puzzle craze came on, all the Murray children were brilliant at them. Murray himself died in 1905 and did not live to see the completion of the work in 1928 (there was a supplement in 1933 for all the new words that had been put in use since the start). But he knew himself that there would really be no completion of the work any more than the language itself would be complete. A dictionary is a snapshot of current language, a verbal description that rapidly goes out of date. There has been a second edition, and a web-based version, and a Revised Edition is being worked on, which will possibly weigh a sixth of a ton and comprise forty volumes. Perhaps, though it will appear in only an electronic form. But Murray's basic plan for the dictionary was so good that the plan has remained intact, and the book will continue reflect the growth of our language. The _OED_ is still looking for volunteer readers, to make slips for new words and also to try to find previous usages for words already in. For instance, according to the _OED_'s last bulletin, if you can find a source for the phrase "pick up steam" (that is, to accelerate) from before 1944, the editors want to hear from you.
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Summary: Love's Labors Last
Review: Oddly enough, I first became fascinated by words and their meanings many moons ago when I learned the difference between etymology and entymology (and had to use the "trick" of remembering that, because it contained an "n", as did the word insect, entymology was the word which meant the study of insects, and etymology was the word that defined the study of the history and development of words). The world, thank goodness, is full of people who love words and language, and Simon Winchester is one of those people. His enthusiasm comes through on every page of this wonderful book. One gets the impression that Mr. Winchester, if he possessed a time machine, would happily go back to, say, 1880, and be one of the numerous and unsung readers that sent in "slips" to the editors of the "great dictionary project," to show the various historical usages of words. As Mr. Winchester points out, this was a labor of love by the few who were paid, and by the many who were unpaid. The man who was mainly responsible for the form the dictionary assumed, its thoroughness and layout, and who guided the great project from when he signed a formal contract in March 1879, up until his death in 1915, was James Murray. (The 1879 contract, by the way, specified that the project would be completed within 10 years. It wasn't. The OED wasn't completed until 1928, 13 years after Murray's death.) Murray was an amazing man. Although he had very little formal education, he was intellectually formidable - being familiar with over 20 languages. As Mr. Winchester points out, though, Victorian England seemed to produce an inordinate number of such people - and quite a few of them contributed to the creation of the dictionary. A great deal of the fun of this book comes from learning about the personalities of some of these people. Murray's predecessor, Frederick Furnivall, was a brilliant man, but he lacked staying power and lost interest in the project - leaving things in a muddle. (When Murray took over he had to try to track down millions of the vital "usage slips" that were scattered all over the place - Furnivall had some and readers all over England, Europe and North America had others. There were sacks and sacks of crumbling, moldy, wet, and sometimes illegible slips. One sack had a dead rat in it. Another sack had a family of mice living quite happily amongst all that paper, which was perfect "nesting material.") Unfortunately for the dictionary, Furnivall seemed to be more interested in women. He dumped his wife and, at the age of 58, took up with his 21 year old secretary. He was also very interested in sculling, and managed to combine his two favorite interests by frequenting the local teashop and gathering up as many pretty waitresses as he could, and taking them out on the river to teach them the joys of sculling. Another interesting man was Henry Bradley, who became joint senior editor in 1896. He had taught himself Russian in 14 days, and had the uncanny ability to read a book when it was upside down. Mr. Winchester also mentions that the editors sometimes consulted "linguistic advisers," such as James Platt "who knew scores of languages and once famously declared that the first twelve tongues were always the most difficult, but having mastered them, the following hundred should not pose too much of a problem." Sometimes Mr. Winchester mentions a contributor only, I suspect, because of the author's love of language: he relishes telling us about the "magnificently named" Hereward Thimbleby Price, who was born in - are you ready for this? - Amatolakinandisamisichana, Madagascar. The author tells us that the dictionary was supposed to take 10 years, but it took 54; it was supposed to be 7,000 pages, but it wound up being 16,000; and, it was supposed to cost 9,000 pounds, but wound up costing 300,000 pounds. Lest you think think the delays and cost overruns have something to do with British academic quirkiness, Mr. Winchester informs us that it is much more a matter of thoroughness. He points out that a German dictionary started in 1838 was not finished until 1961; a Dutch dictionary started in 1851 was not completed until 1998; and the Swedes, who started a comprehensive dictionary back in the 1800's, are currently stuck on the letter S. "The Meaning of Everything" is a great story, well and lovingly told by Mr. Winchester, full of incredibly bright and interesting people, and - best of all - giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the labor-intensive creation of this great dictionary.
Rating:
Summary: The Meaning of an Excellent Book
Review: OED involves -involved and it will involve- a double, towering feat in the history of scholarship. One, for certain, as a majestic monument to a gloriously rich language. Second, as a no less wonderful symbol of what dedicated, self effacing cooperation means when done without other spirit that the desire to be useful and being part of a great endeavour. And all this appears clearly and even with poignancy in Mr. Winchester book. He conveys from the reader the adequate feeling of amazement before those men and women prepared to work in something they would not see completed; he brings for us the atmosphere of those years when to be learned meaned really something; he let us see the gradual, slow and difficult -but at last neccesary as a tidal wave- process of elaboration of this elephantine dictionary. And he give us several human prortraits that shines as a token of by now vanished years. Great book under any point of view.
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Summary: By definition, a story superbly and wittily told
Review: Of the fifty or so books I've read this past year, Simon Winchester's "The Meaning of Everything" has been my favorite. Winchester essentially begins by giving the reader a solid platform regarding the origins of English vocabulary and then continues with one of the most incredible stories...the seventy-one year compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary. This could have been a rather dry display but Winchester's wit and warmth are evident everywhere. From Herbert Coleridge through Frank Furnivall to James Murray and the thousands of people who contributed to the OED, this is a story of dedication and sacrifice. How many times the project could have been scrapped only to be saved by fated interfacing and intervention. This may indeed have been the first worldwide project and one gets the picture of a giant ant colony moving about to service the queen. Just as important, the author colorfully depicts the late Victorian era (the 1880s and 1890s) and shows how that was directly connected in many cases to the work of the OED's editors and sub-editors. Through it all, through all the personal clashes, work slowdowns, doubts about the progress of the dictionary, the work went on. And on. The critical turning point was James Murray's refusal to abandon the principles of his efforts because it was felt on more than one occasion that the work was going along at a slower than necessary pace. Thanks largely to Murray, the OED is the defining (pardon the double entendre) dictionary of the English language. Winchester closes his wonderful book by comparing how much more easy the work is today than how it was one hundred years ago as the updates and revisions continue. He correctly points out that because of the expanding nature of English dictionaries become out of date as soon as they are printed. This may be a sobering thought to lexicographers (and their publishers!) but the loftier thought is the one of language expansion. I highly recommend this book not only for its remarkable content but for the style in which Simon Winchester has delivered it.
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Summary: AN ASTONISHING TALE ARTFULLY TOLD
Review: One reviewer praises Winchester's style in The Meaning of Everything by saying the writing "flows." Indeed it does--
in the same way Baryshnikov flows across the stage in "The Corsair." Both make what is dauntingly difficult look easy. In the process of meticulously tracking the absorbing history of the greatest dictionary ever made, Winchester plays with the English language in subtle and witty ways that capture the spirit of the language-loving scholars who made the OED and of the equally impassioned ordinary readers, like me, who treasure it. The story is astonishing (and inspiring); the telling of the story would please every one of the odd, brilliant, cranky, fanatical editors involved.
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Summary: The beauty of language
Review: Simon Winchester takes a dry subject, the creation of the OED and makes it interesting. Unbelievable as it may sound, it is a page-turner. He writes beautifully although sometimes one needs to reference a copy of the OED to completely understand his work. This is the fourth book by the author that I have read and he doesn't disappoint.
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Summary: Awe inspiring on several levels
Review: Simon Winchester's book chronicles the efforts of many individuals who, as he often repeats, never received compensation and only limited recognition. In many ways it presages the millions of Internet contributors whose collective contributions create disproportionate value for everyone. Winchester writes well, as one would expect of someone writting about the best dictionary in the world. He weaves history and personal quirks into the narrative. I could hardly put the book down. In a way, the narrative is inspiring at a higher level than just the creation of a big, fat dicitonary. Many of the participants in the enormous project had lives with disappointments or (and suprisingly often) even madness. For them, their contributions represented a redemption of sorts -- adding a small part to a huge undertaking compensated for their real or imagined failing. He presents enough facts to give the reader a sense of the day-to-day work. The sheer mechanics of millions of slips of paper stored in wooden holes, the arguments about words to be excluded, how far back in time to go ... all had to be resolved. I particularly like the introduction where he mentions that the top echelon of educated people in 1928 were FAR more educated than almost all educated people today. While I don't think people today are dumber than in 1928, that comment sounds like the basis for a new book .... Anyhow, this is an "accomplished, admirable, attractive, beautiful, capital, choice, cool, crack, dandy, elegant, enjoyable, exceptional, expensive, exquisite, fashionable, first-class, first-rate, first-string" read!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: improves on "The Professor..."
Review: Simon Winchester's The Meaning of Everything seems at first glance to merely be a sequel to the popular The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary. But I found The Meaning... to be a vastly superior book. Frankly I think that The Professor... would have made a good, long, chapter in this book (as it is you have several pages of rehash to retell Minor's story). I think what makes book better is that Winchester has more meat to chew on. The making of the OED was not a simple affair and the whole thing seems to have very nearly met its end on more than one occasion. The book reads like a fantastic novel, complete with good guys and evil villains. And along the way you get to learn a good deal about a) the English language, b) lexicography (Dictionary study) and c) the English society that produced such a monumental (in all meanings of the word) work. I felt a little cheated towards the end when the last 70 odd years of the OED are wrapped up in a few pages. I would have found it fascinating to learn more how the work of gathering up new words for the planned 2007 edition has changed since the original plan in the 1860s. And Winchester still tends to wander just a bit too much for my taste. All in all a good solid read that will entertain and edify at the same time.
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