author
Frederick James Furnivall
1825–1910
A tireless Victorian scholar and organizer, this energetic editor helped spark a revival of interest in medieval English literature and played an important early role in the dictionary that became the Oxford English Dictionary.
1 Audiobook
The Babees' Book: Medieval Manners for the Young
by Frederick James Furnivall
About the author
Born in Egham, Surrey, on February 4, 1825, Frederick James Furnivall trained in law and was called to the bar, but his real passion was language, literature, and public education. He became one of the original forces behind the great English dictionary project that developed into the Oxford English Dictionary, serving for a time as its editor after Herbert Coleridge.
Furnivall is especially remembered for founding and driving a remarkable number of literary and text societies, including the Early English Text Society, and for editing large amounts of early English writing. His work helped bring medieval authors and documents back into wide scholarly view, with Chaucer standing among his major interests.
He was also known for his strong social conscience and his support of adult education, including work connected with the Working Men's College. Remembered as energetic, generous, and sometimes chaotic, he left a lasting mark on English philology before his death in London on July 2, 1910.