Description
The Oxford English Dictionary is one of humanity’s greatest achievements, and yet, curiously, its creators are almost never considered. Who were the people behind this unprecedented book? As Sarah Ogilvie reveals, they include three murderers, a collector of pornography, the daughter of Karl Marx, a president of Yale, a radical suffragette, a vicar who was later found dead in the cupboard of his chapel, an inventor of the first American subway, a female anti-slavery activist in Philadelphia... and thousands of others.
Of deep transgenerational and broad appeal, this thrilling literary detective story, for the first time, unravels the mystery of the endlessly fascinating contributors from around the world who, for over seventy years, helped to codify the way we read, write, and speak. It was the greatest crowdsourcing endeavor in human history, the Wikipedia of its time.
A history and celebration of the many far-flung volunteers who helped define the English language, word by word. The Dictionary People is a celebration of words, language, and people whose eccentricities and obsessions, triumphs, and failures enriched the English language.
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