基本説明
初代編集長の夭折、混乱を生み出すだけの二代目編集長、決まらない版元、資金難、好き勝手を言う外野、膨大な原稿カードの整理、修正だらけの校正刷り、世界最大の英語辞典ができるまでの道のりは困難の連続だった。全12巻、総文字数2億2777万9589にのぼる大辞典の「最初の」完成に至るまで、70年にわたり続けられた辞書作りという「無害な辛気臭い仕事」（サミュエル・ジョンソン）に、さまざまにかかわった人びとの物語。
New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2003.
Full Description
'The greatest enterprise of its kind in history,' was the verdict of British prime minister Stanley Baldwin in June 1928 when The Oxford English Dictionary was finally published. With its 15,490 pages and nearly two million quotations, it was indeed a monumental achievement, gleaned from the efforts of hundreds of ordinary and extraordinary people who made it their mission to catalogue the English language in its entirety.
In The Meaning of Everything, Simon Winchester celebrates this remarkable feat, and the fascinating characters who played such a vital part in its execution, from the colourful Frederick Furnivall, cheerful promoter of an all-female sculling crew, to James Murray, self-educated son of a draper, who spent half a century guiding the project towards fruition. Along the way we learn which dictionary editor became the inspiration for Kenneth Grahame's Ratty in The Wind in the
Willows, and why Tolkien found it so hard to define 'walrus'.
Written by the bestselling author of The Professor and teh Madman and The Map That Changed the World, The Meaning of Everything is an enthralling account of the creation of the world's greatest dictionary.
Contents
PROLOGUE; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS; EPILOGUE; BIBLIOGRAPHY
