“Great works are performed, not by strength but by perseverance.” Samuel Johnson
April 26, 1878 – Oxford University, Oxford, England: “Mr. Murray, what are your qualifications for this position? Do you have a college degree?” asked Richard Trench, Chairman of the London Philological Society. Murray replied, ‘No sir. I am self-taught.” Trench probed further, “Sir, what then are your credentials to lead perhaps the biggest literary project in history?”
James Murray, a 42-year-old former Scottish schoolteacher, hesitated, “Sir, I am fluent in Italian, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, and Danish. I know Portuguese, Russian, Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic, and Phoenician. I read the Bible in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, but I digress.” A few weeks later, the Oxford University Press hired Murray to edit a new English dictionary.
Born in southern Scotland, Murray, a spectacularly bright child, was forced to drop out of school at age 14. With a voracious appetite for learning, he taught himself French, German, Italian, Latin, and Greek by age 20. At age 32, he was living in London and a member of the Philological Society. This group included several Oxford University linguistic scholars. Despite Murray’s lack of formal education, his intellect was considered on par with the greatest scholarly minds at Oxford and Cambridge University.
Murray’s job assignment was daunting. His task: Determine the definition of every word created in the English language during the past 300 years. It was a formidable project that would have frightened most men away. Murray estimated the dictionary would take ten years to complete and encompass four volumes, each with 6,400 pages.
Murray possessed an extraordinary combination of language and linguistic skills, perseverance, and a capacity for hard work. His typical workday involved arriving at the Scriptorium at 6 a.m. and working until 11 p.m. His energy, commitment, and tenacity originated from his firm belief that his first 40 years were in preparation for this God-given assignment.
After five years, Murray realized that he had grossly underestimated the size and scope of the undertaking. Although his small team worked 80-hour weeks, they had only published the words from A to Ant, a total of 352 pages.
To expedite the project, Murray advertised in the London newspapers for people who would agree to read books, define words, and mail them in. Thousands of word lovers, from professors to blacksmiths, responded with offers to help. Murray was inundated with mail. Soon, more than 1,000 words a day arrived at the small office building behind his house.
Murray’s most prolific source of words came from Dr. William Minor in Crowthorne, England, fifty miles from London. Minor contributed thousands of words to the project. Despite corresponding by mail for 20 years, they had still never met.
In the fall of 1896, Murray could no longer contain his curiosity. He traveled by train to meet Dr. Minor and thank him for his vast contribution to the project. When Murray arrived at Minor’s address, he thought there must be some mistake. He was at the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Murray assumed Minor was on the staff. To his shock, he was escorted to Dr. Minor’s room on the top floor of the asylum.
Murray discovered that Dr. Minor, a Yale-educated American surgeon and army officer, became mentally ill while treating wounded Union soldiers during the Civil War. He traveled to England in 1871, hoping to overcome the war’s trauma. Shortly after arriving, however, Minor shot and killed a man he thought was going to kill him.
Dr. Minor, age 37, was charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison in the asylum. He was allowed to transfer money from America, which he used to purchase books, which lined the walls of his cell. He spent his days researching and writing definitions, contributing more than 10,000 words to Murray’s project.
Inspired by Dr. Minor’s commitment to the endeavor despite his dreadful circumstances, Murray returned to Oxford more determined than ever to finish what he had started. He worked two more decades until he died in 1915 at age 78. Murray had dedicated 36 years to the creation of the dictionary, but at his death the project was only at the letter T.
In 1928, 13 years after Murray’s death, the Oxford English Dictionary was finally published. It had taken 49 years to complete. The dictionary consisted of 12 volumes, more than 15,000 pages, and 414,825 words. Today, the Oxford English Dictionary remains in print and is recognized as the ultimate authority on the English language. It is a testimony to James Murray’s intelligence and perseverance, to Dr. William Minor, and the numerous contributors who believed in the great work.
Great story.
This is very interesting–never thought about so much involved in the published Oxford English Dictionary.
This was an extraordinary story!!! I loved it!!