K. M. Elisabeth Murray (1909–1998)
Autor(a) de Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary
About the Author
Obras por K. M. Elisabeth Murray
Register of Daniel Rough, common clerk of Romney, 1353-1380 (1945) — Editor; Transcriber — 1 exemplar
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Nome legal
- Murray, Katharine Maud Elisabeth
- Outros nomes
- Murray, Betty
- Data de nascimento
- 1909-12-03
- Data de falecimento
- 1998-02-06
- Sexo
- female
- Nacionalidade
- England
UK - Local de nascimento
- Cambridge, England, UK
- Local de falecimento
- West Lavington, Sussex, England, UK
- Locais de residência
- Chichester, Sussex, England, UK
- Educação
- Somerville College, Oxford
- Ocupações
- educationalist
historian
archaeologist
conservationist - Relações
- Murray, Sir James Augustus Henry (grandfather)
- Organizações
- Sussex Archaeological Society (president)
- Prémios e menções honrosas
- FSA
Fatal error: Call to undefined function isLitsy() in /var/www/html/inc_magicDB.php on line 425- Katherine Maud Elisabeth (Betty) Murray was the eldest granddaughter and later the biographer of Sir James Murray, founding editor of The Oxford English Dictionary. She studied modern history at Oxford University, graduating with a BLitt in 1933. Her thesis was published as The Constitutional History of the Cinque Ports (1935). Working as a research fellow at Somerville College, she discovered a vocation in academic administration and caring for students. In 1938, she was appointed assistant tutor and registrar at Girton College, Cambridge, and ten year later became principal of Bishop Otter College in Chichester, a small Anglican women's teacher training school. During her 22-year leadership, it developed in every way, doubling in size, going co-educational, and becoming a prominent institution. After her retirement in 1970, she turned her great energy to her magnum opus, Caught in the Web of Words (1977), her bestselling biography of her grandfather, transforming relatives' memories, verbal accounts, photographs, genealogical research, previous amateur biographies, and the many letters in her possession into a coherent narrative. In the book, she recalled a childhood memory of Sir James Murray walking in a procession beside Thomas Hardy to receive an honorary degree in Cambridge. Archeology was the other love of her life. In 1933 she had won a studentship at the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and took part in excavations in Samaria. As a local councillor in Chichester, she helped restore Pallant House, and as president of the Sussex Archaeological Society, she helped organize excavations at Bignor and Fishbourne Palace.
Membros
Críticas
Caught in the Web of Words: James A. H. Murray and… por Elisabeth K. M. Murray
3/14/22
A biography of the first Editor of the OED that covers Murray's wildly diverse interests as well as the immense difficulties he overcame to create the Dictionary. Written by his granddaughter with a Victorian discretion that has no use for Freudian speculation, the biography concentrates on Murray's public life and work, leavened with a sprinkling of private household anecdote.
In essence, it is a paean to amateur scholarship (all of Murray's university degrees were honorary), that warms the heart of an autodidact like me.… (mais)
In essence, it is a paean to amateur scholarship (all of Murray's university degrees were honorary), that warms the heart of an autodidact like me.… (mais)
An amazing biography!
Written by James Murray's granddaughter, Caught in the Web of Words reads smoothly,
at once like a compelling novel, and at the beginning, like a travelogue. It opens fully the life
of a man who became one of the world's great Lexicographers,
thanks to his encompassing talents, extraordinary perseverance,
and astonishing high energy.
We journey with James Murray from his rustic Scotland village homes through development into an
expert in South Scotch dialect then, finally to fame and recognition, though little fortune.
Recording the growth of The New English Dictionary, it moves at a lively pace, bogging down only when
long and boring negotiations with Oxford and other obstructionists threatened to shut it down. Many times
progress came to a halt because of personality conflicts and refusals to allow the changes that
Editor Murray required to create his magical dictionary which not only would include EVERY English word, but the history of every word with quotations from original sources!
Teams of assistants, Murray's kids, and volunteers devoted their time, energy, money, and sometimes their entire lives to the collection of the millions of word definition quote "slips" which entered the alphabetical pigeonholes in Murray's Scriptoriums.
By the conclusion of Caught in the Web of Words, James Murray will be so familiar to readers that they may want to read the early chapters again while enjoying the range of photographs.
Simon Winchester's The Meaning of Everything, while owing an incredible debt to Elisabeth Murray, does have one new and important photograph: the famous mail collecting "pillar-box."
Along with current OUTLANDER ,
it would be a good time to add a tour of the Life of James Murray.
(Still a mystery why the OED has no pictures.)… (mais)
Written by James Murray's granddaughter, Caught in the Web of Words reads smoothly,
at once like a compelling novel, and at the beginning, like a travelogue. It opens fully the life
of a man who became one of the world's great Lexicographers,
thanks to his encompassing talents, extraordinary perseverance,
and astonishing high energy.
We journey with James Murray from his rustic Scotland village homes through development into an
expert in South Scotch dialect then, finally to fame and recognition, though little fortune.
Recording the growth of The New English Dictionary, it moves at a lively pace, bogging down only when
long and boring negotiations with Oxford and other obstructionists threatened to shut it down. Many times
progress came to a halt because of personality conflicts and refusals to allow the changes that
Editor Murray required to create his magical dictionary which not only would include EVERY English word, but the history of every word with quotations from original sources!
Teams of assistants, Murray's kids, and volunteers devoted their time, energy, money, and sometimes their entire lives to the collection of the millions of word definition quote "slips" which entered the alphabetical pigeonholes in Murray's Scriptoriums.
By the conclusion of Caught in the Web of Words, James Murray will be so familiar to readers that they may want to read the early chapters again while enjoying the range of photographs.
Simon Winchester's The Meaning of Everything, while owing an incredible debt to Elisabeth Murray, does have one new and important photograph: the famous mail collecting "pillar-box."
Along with current OUTLANDER ,
it would be a good time to add a tour of the Life of James Murray.
(Still a mystery why the OED has no pictures.)… (mais)
This is an old fashioned biography, beginning with lineage and childhood and continuing, mostly in a straight line, until death. The formulation is a satisfying one for the story of the Scottish autodidact who became the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), undoubtedly the greatest publishing undertaking in the English language. The OED, known to all of us who read, remains the unparalleled resource (now available online at $295/year) for the history and usage of English words.
The book describes the immense scholarly achievements of J.A.H. Murray (lexicographer par excellence), but it does not neglect the personal life of this upper middle class Victorian (b.1837 d.1915), who was the God-fearing father of eleven children. The author, Murray's granddaughter, herself an academic and educator, had access to family papers not before available.
The astounding achievement of the OED is its, mostly realized, attempt to trace the history of every English word in common use from its earliest appearance in print to the beginning of the 20th century (the Dictionary was completed in 1928). The enormity of this task required hundreds of volunteer "readers" throughout the Enlish-speaking world to collect words and quotations from printed material, to record them following a protocol devised by Murray, and to physically get the "slips" with this information to Murray and his sub-editors in England, where they eventually resided in a building alongside Murray's residence called the "Scriptorium." In the pre-digital (and for the most part pre-typewriter) age, the logistics of this process were mind boggling and prone to disasters, all well described in the book. The OED, when first published, contained descriptions of over 400,000 words in twelve volumes.
The tension and drama of the story come mainly from the unanticipated growth of the project, with attendant delays and cost increases, all noted with growing anxiety by the publisher. Oxford's Clarendon Press was first drawn to the undertaking as a potential moneymaker (it was not that until long after Murray's death) and as a competition with America's Webster's Dictionary. The changing views of the Oxford Press about the Dictionary, and about Murray, are well chronicled here.
We all love words - if not, most of us would not be on this site - and this is a gratifying tale for word lovers.… (mais)
The book describes the immense scholarly achievements of J.A.H. Murray (lexicographer par excellence), but it does not neglect the personal life of this upper middle class Victorian (b.1837 d.1915), who was the God-fearing father of eleven children. The author, Murray's granddaughter, herself an academic and educator, had access to family papers not before available.
The astounding achievement of the OED is its, mostly realized, attempt to trace the history of every English word in common use from its earliest appearance in print to the beginning of the 20th century (the Dictionary was completed in 1928). The enormity of this task required hundreds of volunteer "readers" throughout the Enlish-speaking world to collect words and quotations from printed material, to record them following a protocol devised by Murray, and to physically get the "slips" with this information to Murray and his sub-editors in England, where they eventually resided in a building alongside Murray's residence called the "Scriptorium." In the pre-digital (and for the most part pre-typewriter) age, the logistics of this process were mind boggling and prone to disasters, all well described in the book. The OED, when first published, contained descriptions of over 400,000 words in twelve volumes.
The tension and drama of the story come mainly from the unanticipated growth of the project, with attendant delays and cost increases, all noted with growing anxiety by the publisher. Oxford's Clarendon Press was first drawn to the undertaking as a potential moneymaker (it was not that until long after Murray's death) and as a competition with America's Webster's Dictionary. The changing views of the Oxford Press about the Dictionary, and about Murray, are well chronicled here.
We all love words - if not, most of us would not be on this site - and this is a gratifying tale for word lovers.… (mais)
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Estatísticas
- Obras
- 2
- Membros
- 492
- Popularidade
- #50,226
- Avaliação
- 4.0
- Críticas
- 6
- ISBN
- 5