Review of Simon Winchester’s The Meaning of Everything
One of the books that engrave the 70-year odyssey to The Oxford Dictionary is Simon Winchester’s The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. It was published on October 14th, 2004 by Oxford University Press, another affirmation of his credibility as a writer. In the book, he uses his personal experience and memoirs from others like Sir James Murray, the primary editor of The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), to publish the 288-page book. Winchester makes good his reputation in this book and replicates a little earlier production, The Professor and the Madman, to write an ageless non-fictional tribute to the OED.
The book jacket has a rustic background of a library with scholars and a distinguished older man, the late Sir James Murray, which adds to the book’s appeal. Winchester successfully covers the bubbly personalities of people essential to bringing to life of the OED. The first few chapters of the book endear the reader to the historic enchantment of the dictionary and, in extension, the British Empire. The last two sections, mainly chapter eight, covers more on the editorial team over the OED defining years, notably Sir Murray. Despite the seriousness in the book’s output, there are many anecdotes provided by Winchester in this undertaking (Winchester, 15-17. He makes light of the frequent purging of languages like Greek and Latin that English has done and notes that famous writers like George Orwell did not look kindly at it.
Throughout his book, Winchester makes a note of the changes the English language has gone through the years. He comments on the first few chapters of the OED on how the borrowing of words from other Nordic dialects matured. Apart from the linguistic contribution, a further illustration is made by Winchester to the pictorial representations of its volumes. In chapter eight, where he shows the large productions, the first nine volumes of the OED were before 1928 (Winchester, 232). With change comes opposition, and right to Winchester’s word, he includes the opposition faced when Sir Murray tried to reduce the number of pages available. Notable philanthropists like Henry Hucks Gibbs, hermits like Fitzedward Hall, and scholars like Robinson Ellis all cheered on the willful editor in his prime (Winchester, 225-226). In conclusion, he also provides a “riding off into the sunset ending ’’ with the foresight of the good Sir Murray saving the OED’S 10th version.
In this section, his eighth chapter: From Take to Turn-down-and then, Triumphal Valediction will be reviewed. This chapter leans more on a celebration of the works of Sir Murray, a draper’s son who left school at the tender age of fourteen years to fulfill one of Lord Oxford’s desires: the publishing of a dictionary. Until Murray’s last breath, he took on the editorial job with the agility of a young man, as Sir William Osler remarks in the book (Winchester, 227). Even though the majority of this section seems like a dedication to Dr. James Murray, other editors have their periods covered though less colorful than their predecessor. The stamp of approval granted to the OED by the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria cannot go without passing. According to Winchester, this recognition by her Majesty revived the embers of the publishing and buried concern over the financial costs incurred. The broadcast of this royal and remarkable acknowledgment opened the floodgates of well-wishers and donations to the tune of £5,000 (Winchester, 219-220). This amount duly received and blessed by the ‘’Worshipful Company of the Goldsmiths’’ was as high an accolade as the titles Sir Murray went on to collect from the throne. ‘’Twentieth’’ and ‘’turn-down’’ are some of the words said to have been Sir Murray’s last (229). In as much as they seem sentimental to a dying man’s last words, they also proclaim a twentieth-century achievement by a man born a century before it.
In conclusion, Winchester’s The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary has a chronological sequence of events collected from historical memoirs. It has a slight resemblance to Winchester’s 1998 book The Professor and the Madman but with less sensationalism. It takes on a serious note of a semi-autobiography to James Murphy and his environment, professional or otherwise, when writing the OED. The publishing of this dictionary took up the dedication and financial resources of scholars and a writer who will remain engraved in time.
Works Cited
OBE, Simon Winchester. The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, September 2003.