In conversation with Desmond Morris – part two

The Oxford English Dictionary is not the only one with a 90th birthday to celebrate this past year – Desmond Morris, the renowned zoologist and author of The Naked Ape, celebrated his 90th birthday just 12 weeks before the anniversary of the OED‘s finished First Edition!

In part one of ‘In conversation with Desmond Morris’, Desmond shared the story of his family connections with Sir James Murray, Chief Editor of the First Edition, and the lifelong fascination with words – and the dictionary – discovery of this sparked.

In this second and final part, Desmond and Peter Gilliver, an Associate Editor at the OED and author of The Making of the OED, share more stories of Sir James and delve into Desmond’s own contributions to the English language and the OED.

Editor’s note: this interview took place in 2018 at Desmond’s then-home (and the former Murray household) in North Oxford.

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