There’s a new book by Sarah Ogilvie named “The Dictionary People: The unsung heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary”. If you are familiar with the OED, you may know that it was a massive endeavor that started in 1857 and finished in 1928. Years ago, I had read Simon Winchester’s book The Professor and the Madman, about one of the contributors to the OED, so I was intrigued to learn more. I downloaded the story on my iPhone and started listening. The author breaks down the contributors to each letter of the alphabet. What a surprise when it came to the letter X. It not only mentions Esperanto, but gives a short history of invented languages, especially Volapuk and Esperanto. Even more surprising, she mentions Henry Phillips, who is considered the first American who championed Esperanto in the United States. I found an article written by Bernard Golden in an ELNA newsletter publication – Zamenhof supplement 1980 – titled “Henry Phillips Jr, (1938-1895): La unua esperantisto en Ameriko”. Ogilvie’s whole section on Esperanto is very positive, so I don’t mind being a Xenomaniac!

–Ellen Eddy