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Hardly Harmless Drudgery: A 500-Year Pictorial History of the Lexicographic Geniuses, Sciolists, Plagiarists, and Obsessives Who Defined the English Language
A richly illustrated historical account of English-language dictionaries from the dawn of printing to the present day.
Dictionaries are repositories of erudition, monuments to linguistic authority, and battlefields in cultural and political struggles. They are works of almost superhuman endurance, produced by people who devote themselves for years or even decades to wearisome labor. Dictionaries can become commodities in a fiercely competitive publishing business, and they can keep a business afloat for generations or sink it swiftly. They are also often beautiful typographically innovative, designed to project learning and authority. The painstaking work of corralling, recording, and defining the vocabulary of a language has inspired best-selling books, both fiction and nonfiction, and even two major motion pictures. And yet its future is uncertain. The internet has taught more than one industry that it’s hard to compete with free, and the reign of the printed dictionary may be coming to an end. It leaves many to are professionally edited dictionaries necessary anymore?—and if they’re necessary, are they possible?
Hardly Harmless Drudgery includes accounts of the towering figures of English lexicography—the “Great Cham” Samuel Johnson, the American patriot Noah Webster, the Dumbledore-bearded James Murray—joined by a large supporting cast. The lesser-known works here include the small, unassuming 1604 book that is generally regarded as the “first English dictionary”; the early representatives of the “hard word” tradition as it evolves into attempts to cover the whole vocabulary; the vast Century Dictionary—an American enterprise that rivaled the original OED; dictionaries of slang and underground varieties of English from the 17th century to the present; and the first handheld electronic dictionaries from the 1980s.
Dictionaries also induce us to ask about the basis of authority. Who gets to say what is an English word and what is not, what words mean, and how words should be used? Johnson grounded his authority on the great writers in English, and the 114,000 quotations in his book make his Dictionary one of the largest anthologies of English literature ever compiled. Webster brought his own conception of great literature, imbued with a strong sense of American patriotism. The OED broadened the scope to cover what Murray called “Anglicity,” a global map of the language.
This book tells the stories behind great works of scholarship but, more important, it tells the stories of the people behind them—their prodigious endurance, their nationalist fervor, their philological elucubrations haphazardly mixed with crackpot theories, their petty rivalries, and their sometimes irrational conduct and visceral hatreds. A chronological narrative, covering more than half a millennium from the late 15th century to the early 21st, Hardly Harmless Drudgery is for anyone who loves books and words.
Dictionaries are repositories of erudition, monuments to linguistic authority, and battlefields in cultural and political struggles. They are works of almost superhuman endurance, produced by people who devote themselves for years or even decades to wearisome labor. Dictionaries can become commodities in a fiercely competitive publishing business, and they can keep a business afloat for generations or sink it swiftly. They are also often beautiful typographically innovative, designed to project learning and authority. The painstaking work of corralling, recording, and defining the vocabulary of a language has inspired best-selling books, both fiction and nonfiction, and even two major motion pictures. And yet its future is uncertain. The internet has taught more than one industry that it’s hard to compete with free, and the reign of the printed dictionary may be coming to an end. It leaves many to are professionally edited dictionaries necessary anymore?—and if they’re necessary, are they possible?
Hardly Harmless Drudgery includes accounts of the towering figures of English lexicography—the “Great Cham” Samuel Johnson, the American patriot Noah Webster, the Dumbledore-bearded James Murray—joined by a large supporting cast. The lesser-known works here include the small, unassuming 1604 book that is generally regarded as the “first English dictionary”; the early representatives of the “hard word” tradition as it evolves into attempts to cover the whole vocabulary; the vast Century Dictionary—an American enterprise that rivaled the original OED; dictionaries of slang and underground varieties of English from the 17th century to the present; and the first handheld electronic dictionaries from the 1980s.
Dictionaries also induce us to ask about the basis of authority. Who gets to say what is an English word and what is not, what words mean, and how words should be used? Johnson grounded his authority on the great writers in English, and the 114,000 quotations in his book make his Dictionary one of the largest anthologies of English literature ever compiled. Webster brought his own conception of great literature, imbued with a strong sense of American patriotism. The OED broadened the scope to cover what Murray called “Anglicity,” a global map of the language.
This book tells the stories behind great works of scholarship but, more important, it tells the stories of the people behind them—their prodigious endurance, their nationalist fervor, their philological elucubrations haphazardly mixed with crackpot theories, their petty rivalries, and their sometimes irrational conduct and visceral hatreds. A chronological narrative, covering more than half a millennium from the late 15th century to the early 21st, Hardly Harmless Drudgery is for anyone who loves books and words.
520 pages, Hardcover
Published April 30, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 10, 2026
Fun facts I learned from this trawl through the history of compiling dictionaries:
1) My nerdery truly knows no bounds (I laughed a lot through this)
2) John Horne Tooke was one of the original overconfident mediocre white men
3) Noah Webster was a messy bitch
4) Webster's dictionaries basically contain none of Webster's original contributions (see #3)
5) I need a biography of Peter Mark Roget (of thesaurus fame) posthaste
6) Slang has been compiled since the 17th century
7) The original Oxford English Dictionary was nearly 15,000 pages long, and its original metal printing plates have mostly been melted down :(
8) Encyclopedia may be obsolete (all hail Wikipedia) but single-volume dictionaries still do brisk business
I fervently hope the authors are right, and dictionaries aren't plowed under in the AI revolution. Words are such a rich source: of language, of description, of meaning and intensity. Its one of the reasons why AI slop, especially published as books, is so disheartening. Words have no value when they are used like numerals, and loss of language is loss of a huge piece of our culture and history.
1) My nerdery truly knows no bounds (I laughed a lot through this)
2) John Horne Tooke was one of the original overconfident mediocre white men
3) Noah Webster was a messy bitch
4) Webster's dictionaries basically contain none of Webster's original contributions (see #3)
5) I need a biography of Peter Mark Roget (of thesaurus fame) posthaste
6) Slang has been compiled since the 17th century
7) The original Oxford English Dictionary was nearly 15,000 pages long, and its original metal printing plates have mostly been melted down :(
8) Encyclopedia may be obsolete (all hail Wikipedia) but single-volume dictionaries still do brisk business
I fervently hope the authors are right, and dictionaries aren't plowed under in the AI revolution. Words are such a rich source: of language, of description, of meaning and intensity. Its one of the reasons why AI slop, especially published as books, is so disheartening. Words have no value when they are used like numerals, and loss of language is loss of a huge piece of our culture and history.
March 21, 2025
This was a great journey through time filled with insights into one aspect of the development of the English language. It contains a plethora of mini biographical glimpses into the (mostly) men who took to the challenges of cataloguing the ever evolving word lists that make-up what we call English. Since many words have multiples senses and many more than one pronunciation, and many words change meanings and new words are constantly entering the lexicon, composing a dictionary is a daunting task. Also, etymology has long been one of my interests and it was something of a surprise to see how strange were Noah Webster's ideas of word origins.
Well, there were a ton of enlightening tidbits which I throughly enjoyed.
Well, there were a ton of enlightening tidbits which I throughly enjoyed.
August 27, 2024
Who wrote the dictionary? We automatically first reply "Noah Webster," then "Samuel Johnson." We may add Merriam (as in Merriam-Webster) and Funk (as in "Funk and Wagnalls), then the Oxford English Dictionary.
But there have been many, many more English-language dictionaries throughout history. Bryan Garner has been an expert for decades. His renowned collection was on display at the Grolier Club in New York. This book is part exhibit catalog, part bibliographic history. The commentary and photographs make it informative and entertaining.
I've had this book checked out far too long -- it was my dining-table reading for more than a month as I read a couple of chapters at a time.
But there have been many, many more English-language dictionaries throughout history. Bryan Garner has been an expert for decades. His renowned collection was on display at the Grolier Club in New York. This book is part exhibit catalog, part bibliographic history. The commentary and photographs make it informative and entertaining.
I've had this book checked out far too long -- it was my dining-table reading for more than a month as I read a couple of chapters at a time.
July 30, 2024
This is more a coffee table book, or a reference on particular dictionaries, than something you sit down to read cover to cover.
In the summer of 2024, the Grolier Club in midtown Manhattan hosted an exhibit of dictionaries and encyclopedias spanning hundreds of years, all from the personal collection of Bryan Garner, renowned lexicographer and author of some extremely good English-language usage dictionaries. This book is basically a summary of that exhibit. I bought my copy after visiting the Club and spending an hour or two browsing the very nice collection.
I've shelved it with my collection of reference works, as a nice digest of lexicographers and what they do.
In the summer of 2024, the Grolier Club in midtown Manhattan hosted an exhibit of dictionaries and encyclopedias spanning hundreds of years, all from the personal collection of Bryan Garner, renowned lexicographer and author of some extremely good English-language usage dictionaries. This book is basically a summary of that exhibit. I bought my copy after visiting the Club and spending an hour or two browsing the very nice collection.
I've shelved it with my collection of reference works, as a nice digest of lexicographers and what they do.
March 10, 2025
We drudge through 500 years of dictionarial history from law to religious to poetic nightmares. I found myself questioning several times: was this meant for a coffee table? By reading, am I failing to uphold its intended purpose: a paper weight? Never in my venture through non-fiction have I found something with so much drudgery. Has this book bettered my life, allowed me to come to some sort of epiphany? No. It showed another way old, white, men, have shaped society: language. Thus, 1🌟. If you ever do come across it? Uphold its intended purpose: use it as a paper weight.
May 15, 2024
A big book, with big, bold ideas about 'who' controls language and why. I love words and this book really grabbed me. Authors Bryan Garner and Jack Lynch are Smithsonian Associates who I'll interview after reading their fantastic, well-researched, enjoyable book. Thanks!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews