416 pages | PaperbackIn this remarkable debut based on actual events, as a team of male scholars compiles the firstOxford English Dictionary, one of their daughters decides to collect the objectionable words they omit.

A marvelous fiction about the poweroflanguage to elevate or repress.Geraldine Brooks, authorofPeopleofthe Book

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and ever-curious, she spends her childhood in Oxford in the room where her father and fellow lexicographers are collecting words for the very firstOxford English Dictionary. While they work, young Esme begins to collectotherwords, ones that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men.

As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to womens and common folks experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so she must leave the sheltered world of the university and venture out to meet the people whose vocabulary will fill those pages.

Set during the height of the womens suffrage movement,The Dictionary of Lost Wordsreveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. Inspired by actual events, author Pip Williams has delved into the archives of theOxford English Dictionaryto tell this original story.The Dictionary of Lost Wordsis a delightful, lyrical, and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words and the power of language to shape the world.