A huge Thank You to Vintage Books for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.
The Dictionary People: The unsung heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary by Sarah Ogilvie.
In her fascinating new book, The Dictionary People, Sarah
Ogilvie, shines a light on the contributors of the OED. Within its pages we
meet a whole host of fascinating characters, such as: murderers, inventors, suffragists,
academics, families, those suffering with their mental health, queer contributors,
and an (accidental) cannibal! We also learn more about The Oxford English
Dictionary’s longest-serving editor, James Murray, who devoted 36 years to the massive
undertaking that is the OED.
‘The new Dictionary would trace the meaning of words across
time and describe how people were actually using them … The OED was the
Wikipedia of the nineteenth century – a huge crowdsourcing project in which,
over seventy years between 1858-1928, members of the public were invited to
read the books that they had to hand, and mail to the Editor of the Dictionary
examples of how particular words were used in those books.’
The response to the call for volunteers was huge, Murray had
to have a red pillar box installed outside his house to cope with the volume of
post. The members of the public who volunteered sent in 4 x 6-inch slips of paper
with words and sentences they had read in books, that they thought were rare or
old-fashioned. There were also volunteers that helped as Subeditors, who received
bundles of slips for pre-sorting.
This book came about when Ogilvie found James Murray’s
address book in the archives, it contained the names and addresses of thousands
of people who had volunteered to contribute to the dictionary. Ogilvie realised
the significance of her find instantly and knew this was the key to
understanding how the dictionary was made - by learning all about the men and
women who made it happen. She went on to find more of Murray’s address books
and through extensive research over the next eight years, she was able to build
a picture of their lives.
The Dictionary People is an accessible, well-written and
immaculately researched book. As well as learning lots of new words and all
about the OED, I also learnt more about Victorian people, which I don’t know
much about. Many of the men and women’s stories I have read within its pages
will stay with me for some time.
You can buy your own copy here (don't forget to check your local independent book shop first!)
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