My husband and I enjoy watching a TV show called "Drunk History." The show involves 10-15 minute segments of inebriated guests (who continue to imbibe as they talk) relating a story from various time periods and global locations. As amusing as it is to watch the guests and the hosts getting more and more intoxicated, we actually end up learning things.
The episode Dangerous Minds included a segment on Dr. William Minor, who (among many other interesting accomplishments) helped write a large chunk of the Oxford Dictionary. Dr. Minor was a deeply troubled individual, spending time in both asylums and prisons. After killing a man during a paranoid mental break around 1871, Minor was admitted to the Asylum for the Criminally Insane in Broadmoor in England. Surprisingly, one of his frequent visitors at the asylum was the wife of the man he had killed. They developed a bond, and she often brought or sent him piles books to read. in one of those piles, he found a notice from James Murray, who was seeking volunteers to help create the first Oxford English Dictionary. He spent more than 20 more years in the asylum, writing tens of thousands of entries for the dictionary.
If you'd like to read more about W.C. Minor and his role in the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, this is a good start: https://www.ozy.com/flashback/the-lunatic-behind-the-dictionary/64787
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