The greatest enterprise of its kind in history, was the verdict of British prime minister Stanley Baldwin in June 1928 when emThe Oxford English Dictionaryem was finally published. With its 15,490 pages and nearly two million quotations, it was indeed a monumental achievement, gleaned from the efforts of hundreds of ordinary and extraordinary people who made it their mission to catalogue the English language in its entirety. pIn emThe Meaning of Everythingem, Simon Winchester celebrates this remarkable feat, and the fascinating characters who played such a vital part in its execution, from the colourful Frederick Furnivall, cheerful promoter of an all-female sculling crew, to James Murray, self-educated son of a draper, who spent half a century guiding the project towards fruition. Along the way we learn which dictionary editor became the inspiration for Kenneth Grahame's Ratty in emThe Wind in the Willowsem, and why Tolkien found it so hard to define walrus. pWritten by the bestsellin