by Ammon Shea
Further Reading
PROBABLY NO BOOK HAS DONE so much in recent times to introduce the OED to the general public as has Simon Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman. In addition, he is the author of The Meaning of Everything, which is a more detailed history of the OED, but no less entertaining than its predecessor.
If you are interested in finding out more about the OED, these and a number of other books are easily available and well worth looking at. Oxford University Press publishes A Guide to the Oxford English Dictionary, by Donna Lee Berg, an incredibly informative user’s guide.
For those who are more inclined toward the historical, I would recommend Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary, a history of the dictionary and a biography of the man most responsible for it, written by his granddaughter, K. M. Elisabeth Murray. It is indispensable for anyone who wishes to know more about the creation of this dictionary.
For those who are interested in a history of the dictionary in a somewhat different vein, there is Lynda Mugglestone’s Lost for Words: The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary. It is an account of the making of the dictionary based on the edited proofs, and it is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. Mugglestone is a wonderful scholar whose prose is no less readable for her erudition. She is also the editor of a collection of essays about the dictionary, titled Lexicography and the OED: Pioneers in the Untrodden Forest.
And, of course, there is always the OED itself.
