THE MEANING OF EVERYTHING
The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary

Description
‘The greatest enterprise of its kind in history’ was the verdict of British prime minister Stanley Baldwin in June 1928 when the Oxford English Dictionary was finally published. With its 15,490 pages and nearly two million quotations, it was indeed a monumental achievement. Winchester celebrates this remarkable feat and the characters who played such a vital part in its execution, particularly James Murray, self-educated son of a draper, who spent half a century guiding the project towards fruition.

In his hands, a tortuous process of scholarship becomes a fascinating story. OBSERVER