Noah Webster
Noah Webster (1758-1843) was a famous writer who worked on the dictionary.
- Noah Webster: BritannicaNoah Webster, (born October 16, 1758, West Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.—died May 28, 1843, New Haven, Connecticut), American lexicographer known for his American Spelling Book (1783) and his American Dictionary of the English Language, 2 vol. (1828; 2nd ed., 1840). Webster was instrumental in giving American English a dignity and vitality of its own.
- Noah Webster and America's First Dictionary: Merriam-WebsterBorn in West Hartford, Connecticut in 1758, Noah Webster came of age during the American Revolution and was a strong advocate of the Constitutional Convention. He believed fervently in the developing cultural independence of the United States, a chief part of which was to be a distinctive American language with its own idiom, pronunciation, and style...
Research & Reference
- Noah Webster 250th: Amherst CollegeAn Exhibit Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of Noah Webster’s Birth.
- Noah Webster History: Noah Webster HouseNoah Webster was born on October 16, 1758 in the West Division of Hartford, Connecticut (now West Hartford). Webster grew up in an average colonial family – his father farmed and worked as a weaver, while his mother worked at home. At the time, few people went to college, but Webster enjoyed learning so much that his parents sent him to Yale, Connecticut’s first college. He left for New Haven in 1774 when he was 16 and graduated in 1778. Webster wanted to continue his education by studying law, but his parents could not afford to give him more money for school. After thinking about his options, Webster began working as a teacher...
- Noah Webster papers: NY Public LibraryThe Noah Webster papers consist of correspondence, writings by Webster on various topics, diaries, and miscellaneous papers. Correspondence, 1776-1843, and diaries, 1784-1820, relate to his career as lawyer, educator, editor of newspapers, Federalist agitator, lexicographer, and etymologist. Included are his writings on banking, the history of political parties, federalism, and suffrage. Also, papers concerning his American Dictionary of the English Language, Amherst College, epidemics, etymology, legislation in Connecticut, amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and other matters...
- Webster, Noah: Credo ReferenceNoah Webster was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, on October 16, 1758, the son of Noah Webster, a farmer and justice of the peace, and Mercy Steele Webster, a descendant of William Bradford. Following early preparatory training with a local minister, the young Webster attended Yale College in 1774 at significant expense to his family, graduating in 1778, after serving briefly in the American Revolution. Following his graduation, he worked as a teacher and clerk in order to pay for his part-time studies as a lawyer. Webster's law career was brief. Admitted to the bar in 1781, he delayed practice until 1789. That same year he married Rebecca Greenleaf, daughter of a Boston merchant. They had two sons and six daughters.
Noah Webster: Beyond Words!
- Noah Webster: Beyond Words!Prepare to be inspired and informed by the true story of Noah Webster.
A Look Inside the Historic Noah Webster House
- A Look Inside the Historic Noah Webster HouseNoah Webster is the author of our American Dictionary and was born and raised in West Hartford. You can tour the house and learn all about his life. Melissa Cole went to check it out. For more information visit noahwebsterhouse.org.
Author's Works & Perspectives
Noah Webster
This picture book celebrates one of the most important patriots in post-Revolutionary times -- Noah Webster. Most readers know Noah Webster for his dictionary masterpieces and his promotion of a living "American Language" that embraces words and idioms from all its immigrant peoples. But he was also the driving force behind universal education for all citizens, including slaves, females, and adult learners. Speaker of twenty languages, he developed the new country's curriculum, writing and publishing American literature, American history, and American geography. He published New York City's first daily newspaper. As editor, Webster conducted a study and linked disease with poor sanitation. He created the country's first insurance company, established America's first copyright law, and became America's first best-selling author.
The Forgotten Founding Father
Noah Webster's name is now synonymous with the dictionary he created, but his story is not nearly so ubiquitous. Now acclaimed author of The Man Who Made Lists, Joshua Kendall sheds new light on Webster's life, and his far-reaching influence in establishing the American nation. Webster hobnobbed with various Founding Fathers and was a young confidant of George Washington and Ben Franklin. He started New York's first daily newspaper, predating Alexander Hamilton's New York Post. His "blue-backed speller" for schoolchildren sold millions of copies and influenced early copyright law. But perhaps most important, Webster was an ardent supporter of a unified, definitively American culture, distinct from the British, at a time when the United States of America were anything but unified-and his dictionary of American English is a testament to that.
The Dictionary Wars
A compelling history of the national conflicts that resulted from efforts to produce the first definitive American dictionary of English In The Dictionary Wars, Peter Martin recounts the patriotic fervor in the early American republic to produce a definitive national dictionary that would rival Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary of the English Language. But what began as a cultural war of independence from Britain devolved into a battle among lexicographers, authors, scholars, and publishers, all vying for dictionary supremacy and shattering forever the dream of a unified American language. The overwhelming questions in the dictionary wars involved which and whose English was truly American and whether a dictionary of English should attempt to be American at all, independent from Britain. Martin tells the human story of the intense rivalry between America's first lexicographers, Noah Webster and Joseph Emerson Worcester, who fought over who could best represent the soul and identity of American culture. Webster believed an American dictionary, like the American language, ought to be informed by the nation's republican principles, but Worcester thought that such language reforms were reckless and went too far. Their conflict continued beyond Webster's death, when the ambitious Merriam brothers acquired publishing rights to Webster's American Dictionary and launched their own language wars. From the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the Civil War, the dictionary wars also engaged America's colleges, libraries, newspapers, religious groups, and state legislatures at a pivotal historical moment that coincided with rising literacy and the print revolution. Delving into the personal stories and national debates that arose from the conflicts surrounding America's first dictionaries, The Dictionary Wars examines the linguistic struggles that underpinned the founding and growth of a nation.
The elementary spelling book, being an improvement on the American spelling book.
The cheapest, the best, and the most extensively used spelling book ever published.
The Rise of American Language Standards
- The Rise of American Language StandardsIn the 1800s, America began looking inward, not to England, for its language standards. The new norms were recorded in dictionaries, spelling books, and grammars, and celebrated in a profusion of distinctly American literary works. Noah Webster, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain are all key figures in this stage in the historical development of American English.