The writing of the Oxford English Dictionary - nonfiction and historical fiction

 

The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester

The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams

Oxford English Dictionary “OED” First Edition – 70 years to produce, 12 volumes, completed 1928 Second Edition – 20 volumes, completed 1978
The Professor and the Madman – nonfiction	The Dictionary of Lost Words – historical fiction
James Murray – first editor Left school at age 14 - self-taught First lecture “Reading, Its’ Pleasures and Advantages” Interested in phonetics – symbols used to represent speech sounds in a language   Ada – second wife 11 children   Scriptorium – shed in back of home to work on dictionary   Bondmaid – only word lost   William Minor Surgeon, former military in America Asylum for the Criminally Insane, Broadmoor   George Merrett – killed by Minor Eliza Merrett – widow	Esme Nicoll Da – father  Lily – mother, deceased Megan – Esme’s daughter, adopted by Phillip and Sarah   Edith Thompson “Ditte” – godmother Elizabeth “Beth” – sister, A Dragoon’s Wife, 1907   Provided spoken words: Mrs. Ballard – cook Lizzie – servant Mabel O’Shaughnessy – market stall Tilda Taylor – actress, suffragette Bill – Tilda’s brother, Megan’s father   Scriptorium Dr. James Murray, editor Da – Mr. Harry Nicoll Murray daughters: Elsie, Rosfrith   Oxford University Press Mr. Hart – “Hart’s Rules,” In charge of printing dictionary Gareth Owen – compositor   Old Ashmolean – Dictionary Room – August 1901 Mr. Bradley – second editor Mr. Craigie – third editor Eleanor Bradley   Bondmaid – word that fell under table and was rescued by Esme

For Discussion:

The Professor and the Madman

NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.

1.       Murray’s goal was to include all words written down, when written first, and a “passage quoted from literature that showed where each word was used first” (page 105).   That was followed by “sentence that show the twists and turns of meaning” (page 105).  Can you imagine undertaking such a task?

2.       Did you like the format of the book? 

a.       Beginning each chapter with a word and definition pertinent to that chapter.

b.       Ending the book explaining why the book is dedicated to George Merrett.

3.       Do you think Murray would have accepted Minor’s help if he knew the situation?  

4.       Minor contacted the victim’s widow and she agreed to visit him as well as accept money from him.   Were you surprised that she agreed to see him?  

 

 

The Dictionary of Lost Words

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

5. Which characters did you particularly like, or dislike?  How well did the author bring them to life?
6. Discuss Lizzie and Mabel O’Shaughnessy.  Lizzie told Esme, “Nothing I ever said has been written down” (page 103).  How did it make them feel when Esme wrote down what they said?  Also, Lizzie said she did needlepoint because “it proves I exist…Everything I do gets eaten, dirtied or burned – at the end of the day there’s no proof I’ve been here at all” (page 33).  Do you think someone could have those feelings today?
7. When Esme thinks about her daughter, the words “Her” and “She” are capitalized.  What did that signify?
8. At the end of the book, Esme and Lizzie took Women’s Words and Their Meanings to show Mr. Madden at the Bodleian Library.  Even in 1915 he told her the book was “of no scholarly importance” (page 338).  Esme replied, “It fills a gap in knowledge, and surely that is the purpose of scholarship” (page 338).  Were you surprised that nothing had changed since 1887?
9. What did you learn from this book about the evolution of women’s roles in the early 1900’s?  How important was the inclusion of women’s suffrage to the story of the dictionary?

 

 

10. Did reading this book make you think about words differently?
1. Page 89 – words only included in dictionary “if someone great had written them down.”
2. Page 127 – words “change as they are passed from mouth to mouth; their meanings stretch or truncate to fit what needs to be said.”
3. Page 129 – “A vulgar word, well placed and said with just enough vigor, can express far more that its polite equivalent.”
4. Page 181 – regarding swear words, “They are like bullets, full of energy, and when you give one breath you can feel its sharp edge against your lip.  It can be quite cathartic in the right context.”

 

From both books:

11. How does the way people speak and the words they use influence how you regard them?
12. These books presented two different narratives about the writing of the OED.   Did reading one make you want to read the other?  
13. Every year the OED adds words that have been adopted in our general conversation.   For 2023 some of the words are Krampus, flirtiness, dockie, figuralism, jailable, and live-fire.   They also updated the meaning of words such as curtsy, deprive, six-pack, flirtish.  What would James Murray think about this practice?

 

This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger

 

Characters
Lincoln Indian Training School	People met along the journey
Odie O’Banion – alias Buck Jones Albert O’Banion Moses Washington – couldn’t speak Emmy Frost   Thelma and Clyde Brickman Herman Volz – carpentry shop and boy’s advisor Vincent DeMarco – staff, abused students, died by falling into quarry Cora Frost – homemaking skills, Emmy her daughter, killed by tornado   Hector Bledsoe – farmer, boys worked in hay field   Albert Seifert – local banker, scout master, transferred for refusing to foreclose on farms   Billy Red Sleeve – disappeared, body found in quarry	Abigail – girl at clothesline, Odie took clothes and left money   Jack – one eyed “pig scarer” – forced boys to work, kept Emmy in house, shot dead by Odie   Forrest “Hawk Flies at Night” – Sioux Indian, discovered Emmy could talk Sioux   Sword of Gideon Healing Crusade Sister Eve – gave people hope Sid – trumpet player and business manager Dimitri – cook Whisker – piano player Lucifer – rattlesnake   Hooverville Powell Schofield Sarah – wife Alice Beal – mother Children – Marybeth, Lester and Lydia Captain Bok Gray   Saint Paul Gertie Hellmann – told would offer help Flo – waitress, partner Wooster Morgan – boat storage and repair shop Truman Waters – Flo’s brother, towboat Kids – John Kelly (Shlomo Goldstein), Mook, Chili One-eyed Jack – met at post office   Saint Louis Aunt Julia – Odie’s mother Dolores Sword of Gideon Healing Crusade

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition.

1.       Did this book give you any insight into how American Indians were treated?  What were your thoughts about the Lincoln Indian Trading School?  Later on in the novel, when they were on the road, Odie reflected that at least they had beds, a roof over their heads and  somewhat regular food.

2.       What did you think the story was behind Jack, the pig scarer, Sophie and Angel?  What about the bed in the attic that was slashed and destroyed?

3.       Did you think Sister Eve was real or a hoax?   What did she think and how did she justify what Sid did, paying off the people who had been previously healed?

4.       Discuss Emmy and her “fits”.   It seems like she knows or senses things during the episodes.   For example, when the group decided to stay with the revival for a while and they went to tell Emmy, she had been sleeping and when they woke her, she said “I knew that” (page 204).  Also, after they had found the Indian skeleton, she woke up from an episode and said, “They’re dead.  They’re all dead…I couldn’t help them, I tried but I couldn’t.  It was already done” (page 292).   They found out later that 38 were killed there.  How did she know this?  

5.       Sister Eve told Odie that Emmy was able to see into the future and make slight changes.   That is why Odie did not fall all the way into the quarry but was stopped by an outcropping, the bullet missed Jack’s heart by an inch, and Albert was able to stay alive long enough for the snake serum to arrive and save him.  These three things were all related to Odie and averted a tragedy.  How important was this to the story? 

6.       Mose was very quiet and withdrawn after finding and visiting the Indian graveyard.  Odie realized he had no family to remember.  When Sister Eve told each of them what they were seeking, she told Mose that he “was looking for who he was” (page 271).  Sister Eve also told him that his Sioux name was “Amdacha…Broken to Pieces” (page 271).  How did Sister Eve know this?  How did this information help us understand Mose?

7.       Why did Odie give all of their money to the Scholfields?  He felt “that giving Mr. Schofield that money had felt so good, so intoxicating, that if I’d had enough, I would have done my best to save them all” (page 316).  Why didn’t he think of his brother and friends and how much they needed the money? 

8.       When one-eyed Jack ran into Odie at the post office in Saint Paul, he told Odie that he had saved him.  He had quit drinking and found and reunited with Aggie and Sophie.   Did you want more information about this part of the story?

9.       Did the like the ending – how everything was wrapped up in the Epilogue? Did you have any questions left unanswered?

10.   Which were your favorite characters in the story?  What did you like best about them?  Aside from the Brickman’s and DeMarco, were there any villains?

11.   Did you like the last paragraph where Odie, as the narrator, writes, “Some of what I’ve told you is true and some…well, let’s just call it the bloom on the rosebush.”  He ended, “Far better, I believe to be like children and open ourselves to every beautiful possibility, for there is nothing our hearts scan imagine that is not so” (page 444).  What was your favorite part of the story?  What did you want to be true or possible?  Upon reflection, did this change how you thought about the novel and the story?