Though he did not live to see this first edition published, his amazing achievements on behalf of the Dictionary gave future generations of editors a solid foundation on which they have been building ever since. He set the standards and original model for the work, and personally edited half of the first edition. His contribution to the development of the Dictionary is astounding. Despite these problems Murray continued to work on the Dictionary until his death. At one point Murray came close to resigning from the project, and at another the Press nearly stopped publication. There were recurring arguments and confrontations over the years between Murray and the Oxford Delegates. A reading programme similar to Murray's is still used today as a principal method of assembling material for revising the Dictionary. Finding some errors and oversights in the Society's materials, he established a ‘reading programme’, through which he gathered more quotations for the Dictionary.

Working in a specially constructed workroom called the ‘Scriptorium’, in which were kept two tons of source quotations that the Philological Society had collected, Murray proceeded with the project. Despite some initial disagreements between Murray and the Press over editorial guidelines, Murray agreed to begin formal work on the project soon afterwards. In 1879 he was invited by Oxford University Press to edit the new English dictionary which had been proposed by the Philological Society. His membership in the British Philological Society and his book on Scottish dialects, published in 1868, allowed him to make many important scholarly contacts. As a young man Murray worked as a schoolmaster and a bank clerk, but always maintained a strong interest in other fields, particularly philology.

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