The Dictionary People

The people's history of the first great crowdsourcing experiment of the Victorian age—the Oxford English Dictionary.

What do three murderers, Karl Marx's daughter, and a vegetarian vicar have in common? They all helped create the Oxford English Dictionary.

The Oxford English Dictionary has long been associated with elite institutions and Victorian men; its longest-serving editor, James Murray, devoted 36 years to the project, reaching as far as the letter T. However, the Dictionary didn’t just belong to the experts; it relied on contributions from the public. By the time it was finished in 1928, its 414,825 entries had been crowdsourced from a surprising and diverse group of people, including archaeologists, astronomers, murderers, naturists, novelists, pornographers, queer couples, suffragists, vicars, and vegetarians.

Lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie dives deep into previously untapped archives to tell a people's history of the OED. She traces the lives of thousands of contributors who defined the English language, from eccentric autodidacts to family groups who made word-collection their passion. With generosity and brio, Ogilvie reveals, for the first time, the full story of the making of one of the most famous books in the world—and celebrates to sparkling effect the extraordinary efforts of the Dictionary People.