Fiction, Hardcover with dust jacket. Simon Winchester, Author. Contains black and white illustrations. The boards are cloth black with gilt lettering on the spine. Viking, Published by the Penguin Group, Penguin Books, ltd. First Published, 1998. Printed in Great Britain. Total 207 pages. Cream colored pages throughout the book. Approximate size, 5.25 x 8. Giftable condition. Only light shelfwear on the jacket."The making of the Oxford English Dictionary was a monumental fifty year task requiring the assistance of thousands of volunteers. One of the keenest was a certain W. C. Minor, who astonished and dismayed everyone by declining ever to come to Oxford to receive his congratulations until, reputedly, his refusals eventually prompted the Dictionary's editor, James Murray, to travel down to Crowthorne, in Berkshire to meet him. What he found was utterly shocking. Minor was a millionaire American Civil War surgeon turned lunatic, imprisoned in Broadmoor Asylum for murder, who had dedicated his entire cell bound life to work on the English language. Simon Winchester tracks down this uplifting tale of tragedy, genius and passion in all its bizarre and fascinating detail. This book is one of the great untold stories of literature." The spine is tight and straight, the pages are free of markings and tears. An excellent book! *4BC2