Bill saw this book and thought I'd love it, so he bought it for me. Love it I did! It's a fun romp through the alphabet with each letter characterizing certain people who were at the heart of the creation of the Oxford English dictionary.
What a cast of characters it was! Back in the day when the first edition of the dictionary was being created, the call went out for people to read books and periodicals, pick out words, provide a quote and a citation, and send the slips of paper to the editor. Some people sent in a few and some were more prolific, sending in thousands and even hundreds of thousands in some cases. People from all different walks of life and with wildly varying interests sent in slips, many from publications having to do with their own particular obsessions. This is such a great book, dealing as it does with words, but also brief life stories and even a bit about the culture in which the dictionary was being created. This is a wonderful addition to my book collection and I know I'll be picking it up from time to time to open at random and read some chapters again.
9 comments:
Sounds great. Brenda
It's a really fun read!
Oh yes, dear Shari,
Bill did a great job and chose a book for you that I can imagine you would enjoy - both in terms of content/topic, but also the cover looks very inviting.
Have a good time and cozy autumn days!
Traude
🍁🌻🍂 🌻🍁
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Thanks, Traude--happy autumn to you, too!
You read such interesting books Shari. I always like to stop by and see what I can add to my reading list. :) Erika
Kudos to bill for bringing it home for you. I reminded of the story about the ladies of the Victorian Temperance Society who congratulated the creator of a dictionary, Samuel Johnson if I am not mistaken, on not including any unseemly or salacious words, and he thanked them for being so diligent in going through the pages and checking for them all!
I like to collect possibilities for my never ending 'want to read' list, too, Erika. So many books, so little time!
That's a great response, David--the OED people had some issues with that stuff, too. Because of the obscenity laws at the time, they were afraid that including some words could get them banned.
Well done Bill, you clearly enjoyed this book :)
All the best Jan
I really did! And the OED came up in a book I just finished, too, so I was able to put things in context--nice!
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