Tireless Champion of American English

The most famous of all American dictionary-makers, Noah Webster was as influential in the history of American English as George Washington in the American Revolution. From his Dissertations on the English Language in 1789 to his great monument of 1828, an American Dictionary of the English language (referred to simply as “Webster’s”), his work is a real landmark in American history.

Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and, like many of the American revolutionaries, turned from law to teaching as a means of making his living. It was one of those career changes that transforms a man’s life. Britain was at war with the colonies, and schoolbooks, traditionally imported from London, were in short supply. Besides, in Webster’s view, they were unsatisfactory. So, very much in the spirit of the New World, he set about filling the gap. Between 1783 and 1785 while still in his twenties, Webster published three elementary books in English, a speller, a grammar and a reader. The American Speller turned out to be a runaway bestseller, selling over 80 million copies in Webster’s lifetime (second only to the Bible).

The success of the American Speller gave Webster more than enough to live on, and he now devoted the rest of his life to the championing of the cause of the American language, its spelling, its grammar and its pronunciation. He wrote: “Our honor requires us to have a system of our own, in language as well as in government.” An old printer, recalling his apprenticeship, told the story of the day when a little pale-faced man came into the office and handed him a printed slip, saying, “My lad, when you use these words, please oblige me by spelling them as here: theater, center, etc.” It was Noah Webster travelling about the printing offices and persuading people to follow his “improved” conventions.

In 1806, Webster published his first Dictionary, the next step in his program to standardize the American language, and continued to call for the “detachment” from English literary models. From 1812 to 1822 Webster lived in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he helped to found Amherst College. In 1825, having devoted more than twenty years to the study of the English language and having travelled in both England and France, Webster returned to new Haven to complete the work of his life.

The culmination of Webster’s efforts came with the publication of his American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828, larger than Samuel Johnson’s by about a third and containing much American usage. But Webster’s importance does not rest only upon the size of his book. His precise definitions are models of lexicography style. Also, by the inclusion of thousands of technical and scientific terms, Webster laid the groundwork for the modern comprehensive dictionary. Despite its now honored place in the history of American English, the first Webster’s sold only 2, 500 copies and he was forced to mortgage his home to bring out a second edition. The rest of his life was dogged by debt and he died in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1848 with much of his effort unrecognized and unapplauded.