An Adventure of Great Dimension: The Launching of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (review)

Reviews21 1 An Adventure of Great Dimension: The Launching of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. By Erica Reiner. Transactions of the American Philological Society 92.3. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. 2002. Pp. xvi + 140. $30.00. O; inly with the death of Erica Reiner (1924-2005) did I learn that she had written this memoir of the early days of one of the great reference works, the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD). A generous obituary described the vast range of her scholarship: "Dr. Reiner's knowledge of Babylonian history of science was legendary among scholars" (Saxon 2005, A-25). Her association with the dictionary lasted for 44 years. She was editor-incharge from 1973 until her retirement in 1996 and continued to review and edit until the end of her life. So far, 23 volumes have been published, two more are in press, and the final volume is promised by the end of 2006. Reiner saw parallels between the CAD and the MiddleEnglish Dictionary (MED). Both were planned in thel920s; both began publishing in the mid1950s with a letter in the middle of the alphabet; both were finished at (nearly) the same time. She was happy to be present when DSNA met in Ann Arbor in 2001 to celebrate the completion of the MED, and in her book she mentions an influential visit she made in 1954 to Hans Kurath, the editor who first brought the MED to print. Subsequent participation in DSNA meetings included chats with Sherman M. Kuhn and Robert E. Lewis, Kurath's successors , and she recalls the value of those conversations to her and to her work. Adventure is a remarkable story of life inside the dictionary offices on the third-floor of the Oriental Institute in Chicago. For other dictionaries, we must rely on scattered remarks and highly circumspect memoirs to learn the inside work of lexicography. A telling detail in Herbert Morton's account of the editing of Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961) suggests something of the austere chill of the work room in Springfield: Philip Gove communicated with his colleagues, even those in adjoining offices, by letter (Morton 1994, 72-73). Rarely, the historical record reveals the competition and acrimony that often accompany lexicography — for instance, Michael Adams's account of the unhappy collaboration of Sanford Brown Meech and Hope EmilyAllen while they were working at the MED and the Early Modern English Dictionary, respectively. As the CAD moved toward publication, the editorial board consisted of Ignace J. Gelb, Thorkildjacobsen, Benno Landsberger, and A. Leo Oppenheim . All four were eminent scholars, but it was not easy for them to work together . Oppenheim was determined to see the dictionary into print, but there were controversies over the format of entries. GeIb, an enthusiast of Leonard Bloomfield's version of structuralism, circulated a model entry that was roundly criticized for being impractical. This first step made Assyriologists skeptical, though Reiner believes that Gelb's schematic might have been a model for further work, but "not with the highly individualist staff of the CAD" 21 2 Reviews (16) . A second effort, consisting of a quire of the letter H, was prepared under Oppenheim's direction. One conscientious evaluator checked every single quotation and found "countless errors" (36). "The Chicago team was shocked" (36). Finally the first volume appeared in print, and outsiders were far more satisfied with the finished work than they had been with the specimens. Now the criticism came from inside the dictionary. "Thorkild Jacobsen ... having initially given his support to the project and to its director, found that he could not go along with it; tragically, he chose not simply to withdraw but to try to stop the project altogether" (39). His efforts were unstinting, and he attempted (without success) to draw the director of the Oriental Institute and the President of the University of Chicago to his side of the dispute. He even attempted to sabotage the idea of giving Reiner a tenured position, and, only after she had received two offers from Harvard, did the promotion take place. Though far more supportive, Benno Landsberger thought the schedule was too ambitious, and he objected vehemently to the "insane speed" of production (39...