He died in 1920 in New Haven, Connecticut. An insane homicidal doctor, an autodidactic bank clerk, and a poor labourer do not sound promising candidates as dramatis personae in the story of the creation of one of the world's greatest reference books, but so they turned out to be.

In 1878, he became a major contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary until 1902, when his mental conditioned worsened and he cut off his own penis, at which point he returned to St Elizabeth in America where he was diagnosed with dementia praecox. He was found not-guilty by reason of insanity and was sent to the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Eventually he emigrated to Lambeth, London, and in 1872 he fatally shot a man named George Merritt, whom he suspected of having broken into his room. See search resultsfor this author Simon Winchester(Author) 4. The Surgeon of Crowthorne, Simon Winchester It sounds pretty sensational: a known murderer worked on the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary a murder who was known to be insane and who was kept at Broadmoor for the entire time he was assisting. His mental instability led to his admission to St Elizabeth Hospital for Lunatics in Washington DC, leading to his resignation from Army commission. The Surgeon of Crowthorne (Popular Penguins) Paperback International Edition, Januby Simon Winchester (Author) Visit Amazon's Simon Winchester Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more.

Minor graduated from Yale Medical School and served in the Union Army in th American Civil war, which precipitated a degradation in his sanity. Surgeon of Crowthorne A retired American Army surgeon, WC Minor (1834–1920), who was a key contributor of material to the Oxford English Dictionary for decades beginning in the 1870s.

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