The Professor and the Madman masterfully researched and eloquently written 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 begun in 1857 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.
