CHASING THE SUN is an immensely readable and fascinating history of the dictionary, of the urge to set knowledge - in the case, words -in order. Jonathan Green traces the story from the first lexicon created in 2340 BC in Sumeria to the pinnacle of the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY and today's computer-generated successors of that great masterwork. Throughout he tells the story through the lives of the lexicographers themselves, a diverse and fascinating collection of men obsessed with words and language, men who with extraordinary frequency assume a godlike role.