A review by erinbrenner
The Warden of English: The Life of H.W. Fowler by Simon Winchester, Jenny McMorris

informative reflective slow-paced

2.75

I picked this book up at a library sale, because I wanted to know more about H.W. Fowler and his work on Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. I've enjoyed biographers about other lexicographers and books on the making of dictionaries. As a writer and editor, I'm interested in how my favorite resources are made.

Overall, this is an enjoyable but flawed book.

There's a lot about Fowler that we don't know, which is a shame; many letters and records have not survived. But Jenny McMorris does her best with what's available. When she has enough source material, the book is not only enjoyable but informative and interesting. When she doesn't have enough info, though, she sometimes guesses at what happens, making bold conjectures. I found this frustrating. If McMorris has grounds for her theories on what happened, she doesn't share them. These conjectures, not infrequent throughout the book, weaken the reader's trust in the book and author. Just tell me you don't know something!

Other things bothered me about this book:
  • The text is sometimes confusing. McMorris will jump around in time in one paragraph and doesn't use enough time markers, leaving the reader confused about when something happened. The text is also sometimes vague or plainly grammatically incorrect, so that the reader doesn't know who is being referred to. The text needed more copyediting to help with clarification.
  • McMorris carries some of the early 20th century biases into her work. In the early 1900s, Fowler might have been considered old when he was in his 50s, but the book was published in 2001. We know better. There's no need to refer to him as elderly when he's in his 50s. There's also no reason to describe his wife, Jessie, as "a large lady of advancing years" and similarly. Nor commenting on his brother Charles as courageous for doing so many sports even though he weight 27 stone. 
  • The front and back matter. An abbreviations list appears at the front of the book, but most of the abbreviations are for the end notes. The endnotes are headed with chapter numbers but the chapter numbers only appear on the first page of the chapters. These items cause a lot of flipping through the book, an unnecessary hurdle for readers.

The book tries to introduce us to a celebrated linguist and give us insight into the work he did. It largely does that. But it's filled with flaws--some serious, others nuisances. Currently, there's only one other biography on Fowler, published in 1935, shortly after his death. It's a shame that this one is so flawed.


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