- Hardcover: 262 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press; 2nd Edition edition (23 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0198662548
- ISBN-13: 978-0198662549
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 13.5 x 6.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
1,538,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12 in Books > Languages > By Language > Russian > By Publisher > Oxford University Press
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"A generous, sympathetic biography of a shy scholar (1858-1933) whose Modern English Usage (1926) earned him a prominent place in the pantheon of language mavens.... An amiable account of a gentle man whose greatest love was language."--Kirkus Reviews
"McMorris illuminates not only Fowler's life but also his work and the difficulties and controversies that surrounded it...McMorris' well-researched book will appeal to the same audience...as Simon Winchester's Professor and the Madman."--Booklist
"McMorris illuminates not only Fowler's life but also his work and the difficulties and controversies that surrounded it...McMorris' well-researched book will appeal to the same audience...as Simon Winchester's Professor and the Madman."--Booklist
Product Description
A biography of the life of Henry Watson Fowler (1858-1933). It tells the story of his work on "The King's English", "Modern English Usage", the "Concise" and "Pocket Oxford" dictionaries, and his collaboration on some of these projects with his brother, Frank. The development of the Fowlers' books is described, from the struggles to achieve an acceptable style for the "Concise" and "Pocket Oxford" dictionaries, to the planning and preparation of "Modern English Usage". Against the descriptions of Fowler's work is set the story of a man whose career began as a schoolmaster, but who changed career to risk all by moving to London to begin a new life as a writer. Henry then moved to Guernsey, where all his books were written, and at the age of 50 married a nursing-home matron, Jessie Wills. The later chapters chronicle the elderly Henry's struggles with the authorities to be able to enlist during World War I and his adventures as a soldier in France.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having read Simon Winchester's account of 'The Surgeon of Crowthorne' who worked with James Murray during the creation of the OED, I was tempted by Winchester's recommendation of this book.
Jenny McMorris doesn't quite have Winchester's lively style (she is, after all, an archivist, not a journalist), but, once she gets into her stride, she tells a very human story of an unassuming man, Henry Watson Fowler, and his working relationship with the sometimes exploitative academic establishment at the Oxford University Press.
To the many people like me who used the Pocket Dictionary ("The dumpy little book", Watson calls it) at school, moved on to the Concise, and still turn to 'Modern English Usage', there is an inherent fascination in following the slow, painstaking process of their authorship.
But, in addition, there are humbling descriptions, specific to their time, of life as a schoolmaster at Sedburgh, the impact of personal sickness and tragedy on Fowler's working routines, the total disruption caused by the War, and the author's self-denying tendency to regard even the most modest payments for his work (no royalties were given) as being more than he deserved.
In short, as well as providing an enjoyable account of a lexicographer/grammarian plying his trade, the book makes a modest but worthwhile contribution to the social history of middle England in the first part of the last century. McMorris is punctilious in her use of the OUP's own records, and actively draws on archival material from elsewhere.
I think that HWF would have approved. Indeed, I think he would have been as pleased as Punch - though he might not have shown it.
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