wa277 (12/12/82)
Anyone interested in the Oxford English Dictionary ought to read an
excellent recent biography of its principal editor, James Murray.
Entitled "Caught in the Web of Words," it's one of those rare
biographies that manages to capture the drama of an occupation (in this
case lexicography) that is not normally considered exciting.
One thing you learn from the biography is that the early volumes of
the OED are somewhat less reliable than the later ones, partly because
the methodology was still being refined, partly because the first editor
(Furness, if I recall) was far more haphazard than Murray.