Prologue - "Round and Crooked S" - the formative years; the great learning period - schoolmaster and citizen; the discovery of Anglo-Saxon; new life in London; Furvivall's henchman; Mill Hill - the arcadian years; the web is spun - abortive negotiations with Macmillan; the fly is caught: negotiations with the delegates of the Oxford University Press; "Sundry Shocks and Serious Jars" - the raw materials for the dictionary; hoc unum facio - solving the technical problems; the triple nightmare - space, time, and money; editor and publisher - confrontation with Benjamin Jowett; the bete noire of the press; shearing Samson's locks - the pace of production must be increased; "Not the Least of the Glories of the University of Oxford"; the sands run out; "The Dic and the Little Dics" - the man and his family.