Ogilvie has provided a sprightly, elegant tribute to the ordinary readers...who made up the bulk of the O.E.D.’s work force, largely unpaid and unsung, filling in millions of slips in their spare time ... An engrossing survey ... The real joy of The Dictionary People is to be reminded that any group of people pinned at its intersection will still burst forth every which way, a tapestry of contradictions, noble and ignoble, wild and banal.
Wonderful ... Essentially a delightful grab-bag of brief biographies ... Emphatically demonstrates that even seemingly dry-as-dust scholars weren’t that at all.
