It was on New Year's morning, 1928, that an eruption of mad lexical gleefrom a battered old typewriter on a desk in Baltimore from the hands of HenryLouis Mencken sent news all across the USA of the long-awaited publication ofthe book that was to crown the English language undisputed monarch of thelinguistic kingdom. From the Oxford-based project a total of 414,825 words, tentimes as many as had hitherto been suspected of existing, had now beenrecognized and catalogued, the results of seventy years of Herculean effort byscholars, linguists, and thousands of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people.The Meaning of Everything is a readily accessible historical account of themaking of the remarkable Oxford English Dictionary, leading up to theappointment of the first editor, James Murray, in 1879 through to its triumphantpublication in 1928 and beyond. Brought to life by Simon Winchester'scharacteristic talent for story-telling, the achievement of making thedictionary is an unforgettable story, and is further enlivened by portraits ofthe myriad characters involved in its creation.From the context of early dictionaries and national projects of the VictorianEra, Simon Winchester leads his narrative through early attempts to create whatwas then expected to be a four-volume dictionary, the appointment of JamesMurray as editor, the unusual, never-before-attempted way in which the book wasconstructed, and the people and processes involved in the definition ofthousands of words, to the triumphant publication of the dictionary and itsadaptation to the age of technology.The profound impact the volumes had when they first appeared, the fame thedictionary has had in the eight decades since, and that it can be expected tohave in years to come, receive full and fascinating treatment here at the pen ofthe best-selling author of The Surgeon of Crowthorne and The Map That ChangedThe World.