The man who made lists to fend off depression

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
His mother suffered dark
depressions and tried to dominate his life. His sister and
daughter had severe mental problems, his father and wife died
young and a beloved uncle committed suicide in his arms.

So what did Peter Mark Roget, the creator of Roget%26#39;s
Thesaurus, do to handle all the pain, grief, sorrow,
affliction, woe, bitterness, unhappiness and misery in a life
that lasted over 90 years?

He made lists.

The 19th century British scientist made lists of words,
creating synonyms for all occasions that ultimately helped make
life easier for term paper writers, crossword puzzle lovers and
anyone looking for the answer to the age-old question: "What%26#39;s
another word for ..."

And according to a new biography, making his lists saved
Roget%26#39;s life and by keeping him from succumbing to the
depression and misery of those around him.

"As a boy he stumbled upon a remarkable discovery -- that
compiling lists of words could provide solace, no matter what
misfortunes may befall him," says Joshua Kendall author of the
just published "The Man Who Made Lists" (Putnam, %26#36;25.95), a
study of Roget%26#39;s life (1779 to 1869) based on diaries, letters
and even an autobiography composed of lists.

Kendall, in a recent interview, said Roget cared more for
words than people and that making lists on the scale that he
did was obsessive-compulsive behavior that helped him fend off
the demons that terrorized his distinguished British family.

Madness was a regular guest in Roget%26#39;s home, Kendall said.
One of his grandmothers either had schizophrenia or severe
depression, Roget%26#39;s mother lapsed into paranoia, often accusing
the servants of plotting against her. Both his sister and his
daughter suffered depression and mental problems.

Then there was the case of Roget%26#39;s uncle, British member of
Parliament Sir Samuel Romilly, known for his opposition to the
slave trade and for his support of civil liberties. He slit his
own throat while Roget tried to get the razor out of his hands.

Unlike a Thesaurus, no one understood Uncle Sam%26#39;s last
words: "My dear....I wish..."

Indeed, to quote most of the Thesaurus listing for pain,
Roget%26#39;s was a life filled with grief, pain, suffering,
distress, affliction, woe, bitterness, heartache, unhappiness,
infelicity and misery.

NOT WHOLLY EVIL

Kendall said, "The lists gave him an alternative world to
which to repair." Many writers have declared their debt to
Roget, including Peter Pan%26#39;s creator, J.M. Barrie. In homage,
he put a copy of the Thesaurus in Captain Hook%26#39;s cabin so he
could declare: "The man is not wholly evil -- he has a
Thesaurus in his cabin.

The 20th century poet Sylvia Plath called herself "Roget%26#39;s
Strumpet" to pay respects for all the word choices he gave her.

But the British journalist Simon Winchester holds Roget
responsible for helping to dumb down Western culture because
his work allows a writer to look it up rather than think it
out.

Roget made his first attempt at a Thesaurus at age 26 but
put aside the effort and did not publish his book until 1852
when he was in his 70s and retired. He then kept busy with it
for the rest of his life.

It became an instant hit in Britain but did not sell that
well when an American edition was published two years later.
But when Americans went crazy for crossword puzzles in the
1920s, the Thesaurus assumed its place on reference shelves.

Kendall%26#39;s book is written in a style that he calls
"narrative non-fiction" which contains a lot of dialogue and
descriptions of how Roget and his friends feel and think, all,
he says, based on source material.

"I did a lot of work to stitch together a narrative," he
said, adding that all the scenes in the book are based on
actual events.