Talk of the Town

The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

Wed. Nov. 12TH, 7:30-9:00 pm

With: Simon Winchester, Author Of The Meaning Of Everything, Oxford University Press, 2003.

Special Guest: Dr. John Willinsky, Professor Of Language And Literacy Education.

Some years ago, while he was reading in the bath, Simon Winchester came across the story of Dr. W.C. Minor, the American lunatic doctor who was imprisoned in Broadmoor and became a prolific contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary. It was indeed a “Eureka!” moment, and led to Winchester’s thorough telling of the fascinating tale in his best-selling book The Professor and the Madman. With The Meaning of Everything he returns to the subject of the OED to tell the amazing story of the seventy-year odyssey to create the grandfather of all word-books. Along the way he pays homage to English, as Winchester puts it: “ The language of invaders, a slippery, fluid, all-embracing, mongrel tongue.”

Mr. Winchester will be joined later in the event by Dr. John Willinsky for a discussion on how dictionaries help shape our view of the world and are in turn a product of the world-view of those who make the dictionary.

The discussion will take place at UBC’s Robson Square campus. Attendance is free of charge, but please pre-register at info.talkofthetown@ubc.ca or phone 604-822-1700.

For more information on the book you can go the Oxford University Press web site (http://www.oup-usa.org/isbn/0198607024.html).

The Meaning of Everything

“Simon Winchester’s The Meaning of Everything confirms his extraordinary gifts as a storyteller and at novelistic portraitures of Dickensian characters: James Murray, Fitzedward Hall, W.C. Minor and perhaps best of all, Frederick Furnivall. Winchester has the primal exuberance of a great writer – I read straight through The Meaning of Everything, unable to turn away from it.”

Harold Bloom

“He’s a superb historian because he is a superb storyteller…The strange richness of it all is enhanced by the flawless clarity of Winchester’s prose.”

Salon.com

About The Author

SIMON WINCHESTER: Simon Winchester studied geology at Oxford and has written for Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian, and National Geographic. He is the author of Krakatoa, The Map That Changed the World and The Professor and the Madman among many other titles. He lives in Massachusetts and in the Western Isles of Scotland.

Bibliography

• Krakatoa, HarperCollins, 2003
• The Map That Changed the World, HarperCollins, 2001
• The Fracture Zone, HarperCollins, 2000
• The Professor and the Madman, HarperCollins, 1998

For a list of 12 other titles go to: http://www.simonwinchester.com/books/books.asp

Links & Readings

Links

NPR Interview

Neal Conan interviews Simon Winchester about The Meaning of Everything on Talk of the Nation.

The Meaning of Everything

A review of Simon Winchester’s new book by William F. Buckley Jr., in the New York Times.

Atlantic Unbound

An on-line interview from The Atlantic magazine, on Krakatoa.

An interview on The Professor and the Madman

This is a fascinating interview on Winchester’s best-selling book, conducted by John Simpson, Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.