Editing Noah Webster (section)

==Dictionary==
{{Main|Webster's Dictionary}}

===Publication===
[[File:Noah Webster 1958 issue.JPG|thumb|Webster honored on a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1958]]
In 1806, Webster published his first [[dictionary]], [[s:A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language|''A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language'']]. By 1807, he began work on a more extensive dictionary, ''An American Dictionary of the English Language'', which took twenty-six years to complete. To evaluate the etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-eight languages, including [[Old English]], Gothic, German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, Welsh, Russian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Persian, Arabic, and [[Sanskrit]]. His goal was to standardize American English, which varied widely across the country. They also spelled, pronounced, and used English words differently.<ref>Pearson, Ellen Holmes. "[http://www.teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25489 The Standardization of American English]," [http://www.teachinghistory.org Teachinghistory.org], accessed March 21, 2012</ref> However, his level of understanding for these languages was challenged with [[Charlton Laird]] claiming that Webster struggled with "elements of Anglo-Saxon grammar" and that he did "not recognize common words".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Laird |first=Charlton |date=Feb 1946 |title=Etymology, Anglo-Saxon, and Noah Webster |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/487343 |journal=[[American Speech]] |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=8 |doi=10.2307/487343  |jstor=487343 }}</ref> Thomas Pyles also went on to write that Webster showed "an ignorance of German which would disgrace a freshman".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pyles |first=Thomas |title=Words and Ways of American English |publisher=Random House |year=1952 |isbn= |edition=1 |pages=99 |language=en |asin=B0006ASZUG}}</ref>

Webster completed his dictionary during his year abroad in January 1825 in a boarding house in [[Cambridge]], England.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jill |last=Lepore |title=The Story of America: Essays on Origins |location=Princeton, New Jersey |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-691-15399-5 |pages=125 }}</ref> His book contained seventy thousand words, of which twelve thousand had never appeared in a published dictionary before. As a [[spelling reform]]er, Webster preferred spellings that matched pronunciation better. In ''A Companion to the American Revolution'' (2008), [[John Algeo]] notes: "It is often assumed that characteristically [[American and British English spelling differences|American spellings]] were invented by Noah Webster. He was very influential in popularizing certain spellings in America, but he did not originate them. Rather ... he chose already existing options such as ''center, color'' and ''check'' on such grounds as simplicity, analogy or etymology."<ref name="algeo599"/> He also added American words, like "skunk", that did not appear in British dictionaries. At the age of seventy, Webster published his dictionary in 1828, registering the copyright on April 14.<ref name="Wright2006">{{cite book|last=Wright|first=Russell O.|title=Chronology of education in the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/chronologyofeduc0000wrig|url-access=registration|access-date=April 13, 2012|year=2006|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-2502-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/chronologyofeduc0000wrig/page/44 44]}}</ref>

Despite its significant place in the history of American English, Webster's first dictionary sold only 2,500 copies. He was forced to mortgage his home to develop a second edition, and for the rest of his life, he had debt problems.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Noah Webster {{!}} American lexicographer {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Noah-Webster-American-lexicographer |access-date=2022-03-01 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 1840, the second edition was published in two volumes. On May 28, 1843, a few days after he had completed making more specific definitions to the second edition, and with much of his efforts with the dictionary still unrecognized, Noah Webster died. The rights to his dictionary were acquired by Charles and [[George Merriam]] in 1843 from Webster's estate and all contemporary [[Merriam-Webster]] dictionaries trace their lineage to that of Webster, although many others have adopted his name, attempting to share in the popularity. He is buried in New Haven's [[Grove Street Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Look-it-up-Noah-Webster-s-famous-dictionary-was-11581993.php| title = ''New Haven Register''| date = April 10, 2011}}</ref>

===Influence===
[[File:A Dictionary of the English Language Noah Webster title page.jpg|thumb|[[Title page]] of Webster's ''Dictionary of the English Language'', {{c.|1830–1840}}]]
Lepore (2008) illustrates Webster's paradoxical views on language and politics and explains why his work was initially poorly received. Culturally conservative Federalists denounced the work as radical—too inclusive in its lexicon and even bordering on vulgar. Meanwhile, Webster's old foes the Republicans attacked the man, labeling him mad for such an undertaking.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jill |last=Lepore |chapter=Introduction |editor-first=Arthur |editor-last=Schulman |title=Websterisms: A Collection of Words and Definitions Set Forth by the Founding Father of American English |publisher=Free Press |year=2008 }}</ref>

Scholars have long seen Webster's 1844 dictionary to be an important resource for reading poet [[Emily Dickinson]]'s life and work; she once commented that the "Lexicon" was her "only companion" for years. One biographer said, "The dictionary was no mere reference book to her; she read it as a priest his breviary—over and over, page by page, with utter absorption."<ref>{{cite journal |first=Jed |last=Deppman |title='I Could Not Have Defined the Change': Rereading Dickinson's Definition Poetry |journal=Emily Dickinson Journal |volume=11 |issue=1 |year=2002 |pages=49–80 |doi=10.1353/edj.2002.0005 |s2cid=170669035 }} Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ''The life and letters of Emily Dickinson'' (1924) p. 80 for quote</ref>

Nathan Austin has explored the intersection of lexicographical and poetic practices in American literature, and attempts to map out a "lexical poetics" using Webster's definitions as his base. Poets mined  his dictionaries, often drawing upon the lexicography in order to express word play. Austin explicates key definitions from both the ''Compendious'' (1806) and ''American'' (1828) dictionaries, and finds a range of themes such as the politics of "American" versus "British" English and issues of national identity and independent culture. Austin argues that Webster's dictionaries helped redefine Americanism in an era of highly flexible cultural identity. Webster himself saw the dictionaries as a nationalizing device to separate America from Britain, calling his project a "federal language", with competing forces towards regularity on the one hand and innovation on the other. Austin suggests that the contradictions of Webster's lexicography were part of a larger play between liberty and order within American intellectual discourse, with some pulled toward Europe and the past, and others pulled toward America and the new future.<ref>Nathan W. Austin, "Lost in the Maze of Words: Reading and Re-reading Noah Webster's Dictionaries", ''Dissertation Abstracts International'', 2005, Vol. 65 Issue 12, p. 4561</ref>

In 1850 [[Blackie and Son]] in Glasgow published the first general dictionary of English that relied heavily upon pictorial illustrations integrated with the text. Its ''The Imperial Dictionary, English, Technological, and Scientific, Adapted to the Present State of Literature, Science, and Art; On the Basis of Webster's English Dictionary'' used Webster's for most of their text, adding some additional technical words that went with illustrations of machinery.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Michael |last=Hancher |title=Gazing at the Imperial Dictionary |journal=Book History |volume=1 |year=1998 |pages=156–181 |doi=10.1353/bh.1998.0006 |s2cid=161573226 }}</ref>