Posted on 03/22/2009 7:05:17 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
The title of this column is also the title of a book by Simon Winchester, published in 1998. The subtitle introduces the three, seemingly unrelated subjects of the book, “A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.”
I’d never heard of this book. It was only in the house because it was in Michelle’s apartment in New York. And it was there only because she ran a book sale at her church in Manhattan, and it was an orphan – donated for sale but not bought by anyone. Yet it turned out to be an excellent book.
The two characters in the title are Professor James Murray and Dr. William Chester Minor. Murray was the Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary while it grew from a task that seemed impossibly difficult, to capture, define, and trace the origins of all the words in the English language. He tried to survive to the end, but died when the project was in the T’s.
Dr. Minor, the other man in the title, was an accomplished surgeon in the US Army during the Civil War. He was retired on disability for mental disorders. He came to England, found lodgings in a down-at-the-mouth section of London. Then on the evening of 17 February, 1872, in the grip of his delusions, Dr, Minor shot and killed a man who was going to work on the dawn shift, George Merrett.
Captured at the scene with the revolver in his hand, Minor only said, “I shot the wrong man.” Dr. Minor’s trial presented his delusions and medical history. Under English standards, he was found to be insane, and placed in the Asylum for the Criminally Insane at Broadmoor. There the tale really begins.
From his adjoining cells, the Superintendent at Broadmoor allowed him a second cell for his books, Dr. Minor sent more than 10,000 entries to the OED at Oxford, and he and Professor Murray became friends, despite Minor’s sad circumstances, for twenty years.
The original twelve volumes of the OED have now grown to twenty, and its original 414,825 entries to well over half a million. As the first dictionary in the world to capture all of the words in any particular language, that work was responsible for the fact that English became the dominant language in the world.
And that work came about with ultimate instances of serendipity. Fortunate happenstance, as the OED entry in the book defines it.
The larger meaning of this book is that instances of serendipity lie behind many of the history-changing events in the world. A small change in tactics, and Wellington would have lost to Napoleon, rather than defeating him.
If the Hessian commander at Trenton had read a note from a spy rather than putting it in his pocket, Washington’s remaining army may have been destroyed at Trenton, rather than winning its first battle in the Revolutionary War. Similar thinking applies to the Battle of Gettysburg. If the end of the Union line had not narrowly held its position, the result could have been the opposite of a Union victory.
This process also applies to events in which no shots were fired, but the future was reshaped forever. The decision to adopt the Declaration of Independence, and to bring the Constitution out of the Philadelphia Convention, and then to ratify the Constitution among the states have a common denominator. In each instance, there are unusual alliances and decisions among men who are little known but played critical roles leading to success.
The larger lesson of this fine book is this. When examined in minute detail, almost any changing event in history, there will be some men, and women, who were essential to the outcome, yet they were only involved by happenstance. They well could have been absent from the scene. And for lack of their participation, the whole endeavor might have failed.
The story of The Professor and the Madman is one example. It is worth it for its own three related stories. But it also teaches the necessary lesson that deep reading of history has its own merits, in understanding how events occur, and how they might have turned out much worse without individual serendipity.
Any competent historian can, by choosing and ordering the facts, make it seem that the actual outcome was inevitable. The truth is often the opposite. That good ultimately results is highly improbable. Tendencies to be wary of outcomes, and to pay attention to details, can therefore grow. And those are much neglected abilities of late.
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About the Author: John Armor practiced law in the Supreme Court for 33 years. He now lives on the Eastern Continental Divide in the Blue Ridge of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
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John / Billybob
I am familiar with this book. It is fascinating.
It is an excellent book. Thanks for posting this.
Yes, I have it on my bookshelf. It’s a fascinating read.
Interesting, I just may have to find and read it.
I received the book for Christmas. It is an interesting story that is poorly written.
Cheers!
I’ll have to get that book-—very interesting.
i have this book. It’s taken me 3 years to read the first chapter.
If you liked that one, check out Winchester’s other books. He is absolutely wonderful. “Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded August 27, 1883” and “The Map That Changed the World” are two of my favorites.
The eruption of Krakatoa helped to trigger (in Java) a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy amoung fundamentalist Muslims: one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere. Great, great book.
Everything by Simon Winchester has been great.
Very good book, I’ve owned it since it was published.
And, oh, to have Winchester’s extensive vocabulary ... *sigh*
In the 1932 Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of Blunderbus:
“A short weapon with a large mouth, or bell, capable of discharging multiple balls or slugs, now superceded in civilized countries by more advanced weaponry.”
I like the notion that civilization is marked by advanced weaponry.
Listen to it on tape.
It's great for long drives and commutes.
Minor was a real nutter. He was so obsessed with sex and so upset about it that he cut off his own penis, and with a very primitive instrument; don’t remember what, but it wasn’t a surgical scalpel.
I would love to get the book! It sounds fascinating!
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