The Surgeon of Crowthorne
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''The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words'' is a non-fiction history book by British writer
Simon Winchester Simon Winchester (born 28 September 1944) is a British-American author and journalist. In his career at ''The Guardian'' newspaper, Winchester covered numerous significant events, including Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal. Winchester has ...
, first published in England in 1998. It was retitled ''The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary'' in the United States and Canada.


Plot

The book tells the story of the making of the ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' (OED) and one of its most prolific early contributors,
William Chester Minor William Chester Minor (also known as W. C. Minor; 22 June 1834 – 26 March 1920), was an American army surgeon, psychiatric-hospital patient, and lexicographical researcher. After serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War, Minor m ...
, a retired United States Army surgeon. Minor was, at the time, imprisoned in the Broadmoor Criminal
Lunatic Asylum The lunatic asylum (or insane asylum) was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. The fall of the lunatic asylum and its eventual replacement by modern psychiatric hospitals explains the rise of organized, institutional psychiatry ...
, near the village of
Crowthorne Crowthorne is a large village and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest district of south-eastern Berkshire, England. It had a population of 6,711 at the 2001 census, which rose to 6,902 at the 2011 census. A 2020 estimate put it at 7,808. Cr ...
, in
Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
, England. The "professor" referred to in the North American title is Sir James Murray, the chief editor of the ''OED'' during most of the project. Murray was a talented linguist and had other scholarly interests, and had taught in schools and worked in banking. Faced with the enormous task of producing a comprehensive dictionary, with a quotation illustrating the uses of each meaning of each word, and with evidence for the earliest use of each, Murray enlisted the help of dozens of amateur
philologists Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
as volunteer researchers.


History of creation

A journalist with three decades of experience, and the author of a dozen travel-inspired books, Winchester's initial proposal to write a book about an obscure lexicographer was originally met with rejection. Only when
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
editor
Larry Ashmead Lawrence Peel "Larry" Ashmead (July 4, 1932 – September 3, 2010) was an American book editor who helped create many books featuring such authors as Isaac Asimov, Quentin Crisp, Tony Hillerman, Susan Isaacs, Michael Korda, and Helen Van Slyk ...
read the proposal and championed the book did Winchester pursue the necessary research in earnest. Of the project Ashmead said "we can make lexicography cool". It was Ashmead who persuaded Winchester to call the North American edition ''The Professor and the Madman'' (over Winchester's objection that Murray was not a professor), saying "No one here knows what the hell a Crowthorne is."


Reception

The book was a major success. Winchester went on to write '' The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary'' (2003) about the broader history of the ''OED''.


Film adaptation

A movie version of the book, starring
Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocaly ...
as Murray and
Sean Penn Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008). Penn began his acting career in televisi ...
as Minor and directed by
Farhad Safinia Farhad Safinia ( fa, فرهاد صفی‌نیا Farhād Safīnīyā; born 1975) is an Iranian-American screenwriter, film/TV producer and director, best known for '' Apocalypto'', ''Boss'', and ''The Professor and the Madman''. He was credite ...
under the pseudonym P. B. Shemran, was released in 2019 with the title ''The Professor and the Madman''. The movie rights for the book were bought by Gibson's
Icon Productions Icon Productions is a production company founded in August 1989 by actor/director Mel Gibson and Australian producing partner Bruce Davey, which, unlike most other independent production companies, funds most of its development and production cos ...
in 1998.
John Boorman Sir John Boorman (; born 18 January 1933) is a British film director, best known for feature films such as ''Point Blank'' (1967), ''Hell in the Pacific'' (1968), ''Deliverance'' (1972), ''Zardoz'' (1974), '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977), ...
wrote a script and was at one time tapped to direct, as was
Luc Besson Luc Paul Maurice Besson (; born 18 March 1959) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed or produced the films '' Subway'' (1985), ''The Big Blue'' (1988), and '' La Femme Nikita'' (1990). Besson is associated with the ' ...
. Production began in 2016, but the release was delayed by legal disputes between parties in the film's production.


References


Editions

* * * * *


External links


AskOxford.com interview
Winchester speaks about the book to John Simpson, Chief Editor of the ''OED''
''Booknotes'' interview with Winchester on ''The Professor and the Madman'', November 8, 1998.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Surgeon Of Crowthorne, The 1998 non-fiction books American biographies Books by Simon Winchester Works derived from the Oxford English Dictionary Viking Press books Books about mental health Non-fiction books adapted into films History of mental health in the United Kingdom