Just finished reading 'The Professor and the Madman' by Simon Winchester, a book about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, which - when you stop to think and read about it - must have been a gargantuan task to envision, let alone complete. But it was achieved through the efforts of many, but in particular by one desperate lunatic with an astounding genius.
It took 70 years to put together, and Winchester tells the tale in the style of 'The Devil in the White City' - while greatness is being made, madness and murder lurk in an inextricably linked background.
The book is written in a bit of a hodge-podge, one-person's-opinion style rather than as a serious academic pursuit - but nonetheless an interesting read.
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