Lexicography and the OED justifiably claims to be "the most wide-ranging account yet published of the creation of one of the great canonical works of the 20th century ... This study is an essential acquisition for lexicographers, language scholars and researchers. Indeed, anyone with a passion for the English language and a basic knowledge of the history of the OED will find much of interest within these pages.

Lynda Mugglestone is Fellow in English Language and Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford, and News International Lecturer in Language and Communication. She has written widely on nineteenth-century language and associated issues — literary and linguistic, as well as lexicographic.