[Item #47759] The Oxford Dictionary Slanders: The Greatest Scandal in the Whole History of Scholarship. CRANKS, M. WYLLIE, ames.

The Oxford Dictionary Slanders: The Greatest Scandal in the Whole History of Scholarship

St. Andrews, Guernsey: Barras, 1965. First Edition. Octavo (19.5cm.); publisher's pink mimeographed staplebound card wrappers; xiv,142pp.; frontispiece, title page and "A Prayer to Her Majesty The Queen" printed in red and black. Light toning and dust-soil to wrapper extremities, spine edge a bit rubbed, contemporary ownership signature inside upper cover, else Very Good, or better.

One of several self-published tracts by the former lexicographer at the Clarendon Press, Oxford. As a young man Wyllie was hired to work under William Craigie on the "New English Dictionary," though due to personal disagreements the project stalled for decades. Wyllie eventually suffered a nervous breakdown and was dismissed in 1954, after which he began producing such polemical works as "Sin and Punishment," an open letter to Sir Maurice Bowra, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. This title opens with a prayer to Her Majesty The Queen: "The matters dealt with in the main part of this book and the injustices which it shows to have been done to one of Your Majesty's loyal subjects, reveal such a formidable combination of evil and power that a remedy can only be hoped for from an even more powerful combination of justice, goodness and humanity" (p. [iv]).

Price: $150.00

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