Indiana Windmill

Peter Mark Roget was a man who made lists. He began filling notebooks with lists of words when he was very young. Making lists helped him cope with the death of his father. Lists helped him memorize Latin words and their meanings when he was a schoolboy. They helped him to organize his thoughts when he studied to become a doctor in Edinburgh. They brought a sense of peace and order to his life when his beloved uncle committed suicide. They helped him deal with his own depression. In 1852, Peter published a list of words organized by their meanings. He called it his Thesaurus, which means “treasure house” in Greek. The first thousand copies sold out very quickly. When Peter Mark Roget died in 1869, his son John Lewis Roget became editor of the Thesaurus. In 1908 his grandson Samuel inherited the job. Roget’s Thesaurus has remained in print continuously to this day.