The Professor And The Madman Analysis

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester tells the story of how one of the most prolific contributors to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary did his work from an unexpected place: the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane in Crawthorn, Berkshire.
Dr. William Chester Minor was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He seemed a fairly normal boy, giving little hint of the complications that would later arise. Soon after his birth his family moved to the island of Ceylon, but when Minor was fourteen, his parents became concerned about his behavior around the girls of the island and sent him to America. There he trained as a doctor, and entered Yale University. After obtaining his degree, he made the decision that partially lead to
the madness he suffered in his adulthood: he signed up to be an Army surgeon.
The year was 1863, and America was in the midst of the Civil War. This war was unique in that it was “fought with new and highly effective weapons... and yet at a time when an era of poor and primitive medicine was just coming to an end” (Winchester 52). Thus men were in danger of more vicious and varied injures that ever before, but were treated with archaic medicine that had not improved in the last century. The sensitive Minor, who tended more towards the library than the battlefield, was not in any way prepared for the bloodbath that would greet him up on his arrival in Orange County, Virginia, in May 1864. This would be the only time Minor would witness the brutality of combat firsthand, by treating men fresh off the field of battle. However, apart from the terrible assault on his senses, it appears that there was one specific event that pushed Minor to the brink. He was forced, against his Hippocratic Oath, to brand the face of a young Irishman who had attempted to desert the Union army.
After the war, Minor experienced a booming trade, and was never for want of work.
However, he began to show signs of paranoia and other strange behaviors. He illegally carried a gun. He spent nights with different women, an uncharacteristic development that alarmed his friends. He spoke of having headaches and vertigo. After being examined by several doctors, he was declared to be suffering from monomania, and was placed on the Army Retired List. He stayed with friends for a few months, then headed to Europe to rest and regain his health. Unfortunately, Europe did not do much to improve his condition. While staying in London, Minor was convinced that he was being tormented by men, mostly Irishmen (harkening back to the Irishman he was forced to brand while in the Army), who would sneak into this room at night and poke and prod him, force foul-tasting food into this mouth, and mistreat him in other ways. One night he awoke to find, or rather, imagine, a man standing over his bed. The man immediately took off running. Minor grabbed his illegal gun and pursued him. Upon reaching the street, Minor saw ahead of him the shadowy shape of a man walking, who, in his groggy terror, he assumed to be the man who had fled his room. He fired several shots, one of which struck the man, who fell, dead. Dr. William Chester Minor had become a
murderer.
The police, drawn by the sound of gunshots, swiftly put Minor under arrest. The court declared him incompetent to stand trial, and placed him in the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Minor was not miserable there; in fact he soon came across a diversion in the form of an advertisement calling for volunteers to help with the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Volunteers were asked to write down words from books written in a certain time period and their use in context so the editors of the dictionary could surmise the differing definitions of the word. With the abundant free time his position provided him and the profound gift for concentration he possessed, Minor became one of the most frequent contributors, sending in words by the thousands. Throughout the years Minor contributed, the staff at the dictionary had no idea of his condition or place of residence, until Dr. James Murray, one of the editors, came to visit Minor. Murray quickly got over his surprise and the two men continued the friendship they had begun over mail.
Though Minor may have been mentally disturbed and a murderer, his contribution to the making of the most comprehensive physical dictionary to date cannot be denied. In the wake of his death on March 26th, 1920, he will be remembered as one of the most interesting stories connected with the books known as the Oxford English Dictionary.