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A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
by Simon Winchester
If you liked The Professor and the Madman, try these:
by Pip Williams
Published May 2022
Read ReviewsIn this remarkable debut based on actual events, as a team of male scholars compiles the first Oxford English Dictionary, the daughter of one of them decides to collect the "objectionable" words they omit.
by David Crystal
Published Dec 2014
Read ReviewsThe fascinating and surprising history of English spelling from David Crystal, everyone's favorite expert logophile.
by Paul Hendrickson
Published Jul 2012
Read ReviewsA brilliantly conceived and illuminating reconsideration of a key period in the life of Ernest Hemingway that will forever change the way he is perceived and understood.
by Erik Larson
Published Sep 2007
Read ReviewsThe interwoven stories of two men whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time - Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication.
by A. J. Jacobs
Published Oct 2005
Read ReviewsPart memoir and part education (or lack thereof), The Know-It-All chronicles NPR contributor A.J. Jacobs's hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z.
by Simon Winchester
Published Oct 2004
Read ReviewsA scintillating account of the creation of the greatest monument ever erected to a living language. Winchester's supple, vigorous prose illuminates this dauntingly ambitious seventy-year odyssey to create the grandfather of all word-books, the Oxford English Dictionary. Browse an exclusive excerpt at BookBrowse.
by Erik Larson
Published Feb 2004
Read ReviewsErik Larson's gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the great fair that obsessed them both.
Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.
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