Lost for Words: The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary »

Lynda Mugglestone is fellow in English at Pembroke College, Oxford. She is the author of Talking Proper: The Rise of Accent of Social Symbol (2nd ed, 2003), and has published widely on nineteenth-century language and literature. She broadcasts regularly in the UK.

The untold story of the complex word battles fought by the creators of the first Oxford English Dictionary.

Library Journal

Relying in part on newly discovered evidence from the Bodlein Library's Murray Papers and OED Archives, Mugglestone (English, Pembroke Coll., Oxford; Talking Proper: The Rise of Accent as Social Symbol) gives us an up-to-date account of the making of the venerable Oxford English Dictionary and details its mythic reputation as a complete and unbiased inventory of English. Mugglestone demonstrates a sharp distinction between the ideal concept of the OED espoused by editor James A.H. Murray and others and the reality of the dictionary as published. Murray's marked-up proofs of the first edition, which show countless instances of judgment, selectivity, and bias, refute the stated goal of presenting the entire English word stock free of any prejudice. Through archival evidence Mugglestone illuminates the thousands of decisions regarding inclusion/exclusion, labeling, etymology, definitions, social and political biases, and limitations of money, space, and time that went into making the OED the extraordinary but still less than ideal reference imagined. Along the way, she offers a procedurally detailed history of the dictionary (preferable to that of K.M. Murray'sCaught in the Web of Words, also published by Yale). Highly recommended for larger public and academic libraries.-Paul D'Alessandro, Portland P.L., ME Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.