The Strange Case of Dr. Minor: The true story behind 'The Professor and the Madman'
"One of the most remarkable stories which have ever been set forth in print." -Medical Pickwick
"The learning which made him so important in the history of the most ambitious philological undertaking in the history of English lexicography was acquired within the walls of the lunatic asylum." -Current Opinion
Few scholars would suspect that the ambitious work known as the Oxford English Dictionary, edited by Sir James A. H. Murray, was made possible in largely through the learning and genius for lexicography of a murderer confined during his period of editorship on the dictionary in the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
The facts came out in the January 1916 issue of The Strand Magazine in a 12-page article by Charles Hayden Church titled "The Strange Case of Dr. Minor." (Republished here for the reader's convenience.) Church had the advantage of intimate acquaintance with one of the parties in the case and knew all the circumstances at first hand. Sir James, it must be remembered, was engaged for many years in editing this portentously long and extremely minute and detailed dictionary of the English language.
It was Sir James Murray's custom, whenever he was ready to start on a new word to send it out to all of his army of volunteer readers, who forthwith supplied the earliest possible quotation which they could discover in which the word in question was used.
When this had been going on for a time. Sir James discovered that some of the most valuable quotations that reached him, together with some of the most scholarly comments thereupon, were forwarded by a certain Dr. W. C. Minor, who wrote from Crowthorne. This contributor's identity puzzled Sir James more than a little, the more so as he soon came to realize that the latter's knowledge of the subject of philology could not be far behind his own.
What was the scholar's astonishment when the carriage sent for him to visit Mr. Minor took him to the insane asylum! A long interview with the authorities of the asylum revealed that the scholar who had sent nearly eight thousand quotations to the dictionary was an American physician who had been arrested for murder, had been acquitted on the plea of insanity, and was at the time an inmate of Broadmoor, where he was allowed the free use of an extensive library.
About the author:
Charles Hayden Church, born in 1878 in Ogdensburg, N. Y., at the age of 18 obeyed the journalistic urge by going to New York to do his writing. He went to work for the Equitable Life, but used his outside time in the turning out of humor for the New York Evening Journal and of fiction for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines. He soon became a member of the New York Press's staff and was sent to the Press's London office in the late 1890s, and for decades was an American journalist in Great Britain.
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"The learning which made him so important in the history of the most ambitious philological undertaking in the history of English lexicography was acquired within the walls of the lunatic asylum." -Current Opinion
Few scholars would suspect that the ambitious work known as the Oxford English Dictionary, edited by Sir James A. H. Murray, was made possible in largely through the learning and genius for lexicography of a murderer confined during his period of editorship on the dictionary in the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
The facts came out in the January 1916 issue of The Strand Magazine in a 12-page article by Charles Hayden Church titled "The Strange Case of Dr. Minor." (Republished here for the reader's convenience.) Church had the advantage of intimate acquaintance with one of the parties in the case and knew all the circumstances at first hand. Sir James, it must be remembered, was engaged for many years in editing this portentously long and extremely minute and detailed dictionary of the English language.
It was Sir James Murray's custom, whenever he was ready to start on a new word to send it out to all of his army of volunteer readers, who forthwith supplied the earliest possible quotation which they could discover in which the word in question was used.
When this had been going on for a time. Sir James discovered that some of the most valuable quotations that reached him, together with some of the most scholarly comments thereupon, were forwarded by a certain Dr. W. C. Minor, who wrote from Crowthorne. This contributor's identity puzzled Sir James more than a little, the more so as he soon came to realize that the latter's knowledge of the subject of philology could not be far behind his own.
What was the scholar's astonishment when the carriage sent for him to visit Mr. Minor took him to the insane asylum! A long interview with the authorities of the asylum revealed that the scholar who had sent nearly eight thousand quotations to the dictionary was an American physician who had been arrested for murder, had been acquitted on the plea of insanity, and was at the time an inmate of Broadmoor, where he was allowed the free use of an extensive library.
About the author:
Charles Hayden Church, born in 1878 in Ogdensburg, N. Y., at the age of 18 obeyed the journalistic urge by going to New York to do his writing. He went to work for the Equitable Life, but used his outside time in the turning out of humor for the New York Evening Journal and of fiction for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines. He soon became a member of the New York Press's staff and was sent to the Press's London office in the late 1890s, and for decades was an American journalist in Great Britain.
The Strange Case of Dr. Minor: The true story behind 'The Professor and the Madman'
"One of the most remarkable stories which have ever been set forth in print." -Medical Pickwick
"The learning which made him so important in the history of the most ambitious philological undertaking in the history of English lexicography was acquired within the walls of the lunatic asylum." -Current Opinion
Few scholars would suspect that the ambitious work known as the Oxford English Dictionary, edited by Sir James A. H. Murray, was made possible in largely through the learning and genius for lexicography of a murderer confined during his period of editorship on the dictionary in the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
The facts came out in the January 1916 issue of The Strand Magazine in a 12-page article by Charles Hayden Church titled "The Strange Case of Dr. Minor." (Republished here for the reader's convenience.) Church had the advantage of intimate acquaintance with one of the parties in the case and knew all the circumstances at first hand. Sir James, it must be remembered, was engaged for many years in editing this portentously long and extremely minute and detailed dictionary of the English language.
It was Sir James Murray's custom, whenever he was ready to start on a new word to send it out to all of his army of volunteer readers, who forthwith supplied the earliest possible quotation which they could discover in which the word in question was used.
When this had been going on for a time. Sir James discovered that some of the most valuable quotations that reached him, together with some of the most scholarly comments thereupon, were forwarded by a certain Dr. W. C. Minor, who wrote from Crowthorne. This contributor's identity puzzled Sir James more than a little, the more so as he soon came to realize that the latter's knowledge of the subject of philology could not be far behind his own.
What was the scholar's astonishment when the carriage sent for him to visit Mr. Minor took him to the insane asylum! A long interview with the authorities of the asylum revealed that the scholar who had sent nearly eight thousand quotations to the dictionary was an American physician who had been arrested for murder, had been acquitted on the plea of insanity, and was at the time an inmate of Broadmoor, where he was allowed the free use of an extensive library.
About the author:
Charles Hayden Church, born in 1878 in Ogdensburg, N. Y., at the age of 18 obeyed the journalistic urge by going to New York to do his writing. He went to work for the Equitable Life, but used his outside time in the turning out of humor for the New York Evening Journal and of fiction for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines. He soon became a member of the New York Press's staff and was sent to the Press's London office in the late 1890s, and for decades was an American journalist in Great Britain.
"The learning which made him so important in the history of the most ambitious philological undertaking in the history of English lexicography was acquired within the walls of the lunatic asylum." -Current Opinion
Few scholars would suspect that the ambitious work known as the Oxford English Dictionary, edited by Sir James A. H. Murray, was made possible in largely through the learning and genius for lexicography of a murderer confined during his period of editorship on the dictionary in the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
The facts came out in the January 1916 issue of The Strand Magazine in a 12-page article by Charles Hayden Church titled "The Strange Case of Dr. Minor." (Republished here for the reader's convenience.) Church had the advantage of intimate acquaintance with one of the parties in the case and knew all the circumstances at first hand. Sir James, it must be remembered, was engaged for many years in editing this portentously long and extremely minute and detailed dictionary of the English language.
It was Sir James Murray's custom, whenever he was ready to start on a new word to send it out to all of his army of volunteer readers, who forthwith supplied the earliest possible quotation which they could discover in which the word in question was used.
When this had been going on for a time. Sir James discovered that some of the most valuable quotations that reached him, together with some of the most scholarly comments thereupon, were forwarded by a certain Dr. W. C. Minor, who wrote from Crowthorne. This contributor's identity puzzled Sir James more than a little, the more so as he soon came to realize that the latter's knowledge of the subject of philology could not be far behind his own.
What was the scholar's astonishment when the carriage sent for him to visit Mr. Minor took him to the insane asylum! A long interview with the authorities of the asylum revealed that the scholar who had sent nearly eight thousand quotations to the dictionary was an American physician who had been arrested for murder, had been acquitted on the plea of insanity, and was at the time an inmate of Broadmoor, where he was allowed the free use of an extensive library.
About the author:
Charles Hayden Church, born in 1878 in Ogdensburg, N. Y., at the age of 18 obeyed the journalistic urge by going to New York to do his writing. He went to work for the Equitable Life, but used his outside time in the turning out of humor for the New York Evening Journal and of fiction for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines. He soon became a member of the New York Press's staff and was sent to the Press's London office in the late 1890s, and for decades was an American journalist in Great Britain.
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The Strange Case of Dr. Minor: The true story behind 'The Professor and the Madman'
The Strange Case of Dr. Minor: The true story behind 'The Professor and the Madman'
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940186762317 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Far West Travel Adventure |
| Publication date: | 08/28/2022 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 764 KB |
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