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'The greatest enterprise of its kind in history,' was the verdict of British prime minister Stanley Baldwin in June 1928 when The Oxford English Dictionary was finally published. With its 15,490 pages and nearly two million quotations, it was indeed a monumental achievement, gleaned from the efforts of hundreds of ordinary and extraordinary people who made it their mission to catalogue the English language in its entirety.
In The Meaning of Everything, Simon Winchester celebrates this remarkable feat, and the fascinating characters who played such a vital part in its execution, from the colourful Frederick Furnivall, cheerful promoter of an all-female sculling crew, to James Murray, self-educated son of a draper, who spent half a century guiding the project towards fruition. Along the way we learn which dictionary editor became the inspiration for Kenneth Grahame's Ratty in The Wind in the Willows, and why Tolkien found it so hard to define 'walrus'.
Written by the bestselling author of The Surgeon of Crowthorne and The Map That Changed the World, The Meaning of Everything is an enthralling account of the creation of the world's greatest dictionary.
List of contents
- Foreword
- Prologue
- 1: Taking the Measure of It All
- 2: The Construction of the Pigeon-Holes
- 3: The General Officer Commanding
- 4: Battling the Undertow
- 5: Pushing through the Untrodden Forest
- 6: So Heavily Goes the Chariot
- 7: The Hermit and the Murderer - and Hereward Thimbleby Price
- 8: From Take to Turndown - and then, Triumphal Valediction
- Epilogue: And Always Beginning Again
- Bibliography and Further Reading
- Index
About the author
Simon Winchester, preisgekrönter britischer Journalist und erfolgreicher Sachbuchautor, hat als Auslandskorrespondent aus fast allen Ländern der Welt berichtet. Er lebte in Asien und Afrika; heute ist er auf einer kleinen Farm in Nebraska zu Hause.
Summary
The creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary was an extraordinary endeavour, lasting over 70 years. In The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester recounted one fascinating episode; in The Meaning of Everything, he tells the whole story of the host of characters who carried out 'the greatest enterprise of its kind in history'.
Additional text
A must for language lovers.
Report
teeming with knowledge and alive with insights. Winchester handles humor and awe with modesty and cunning. His prose is supremely readable. New York Times Book Review
