A Dictionary of the English Language – Noah Webster – 1807 | First Edition

The name ‘Webster’ has become synonymous with dictionary over the last century. Noah Webster sought to create a purely ‘American’ culture that was independent of British claim, he achieved this by creating this dictionary – a work that helped distance American grammar and linguistics from that of Britain.

According to the ‘Printing of the Mind of Man’,

“This dictionary, which almost at once became, and has remained, the standard English dictionary in the United States, was the end-product of a stream of spelling books, grammars, readers, and dictionaries which flowed from the pen of the industrious Noah Webster. Webster’s great dictionary, all the 70,000 entries of which he wrote with his own hand, has been reprinted and brought up to date innumerable times. The book marked a definite advance in modern lexicography, as it included many non-literary terms and paid great attention to the language actually spoken. Moreover, his definitions of the meaning of words were accurate and concise and have for the greater part stood the test of time superbly well”

The DAB notes,

“As a whole, Webster’s American Dictionary was a scholarly achievement of the first order, richly deserving of its great reputation at home and abroad.”

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Dictionary of the English Language: Compiled for the Use of Common Schools in the United States
• Author(s): Noah Webster
• Illustrator(s):
• Contributor(s):
• Publisher: [New Haven]: From Sidney’s Press, N. Haven. Printed for John and David West
• Edition: First edition, 1807
• Format: (16mo), single volume
• Binding: Full leather
• Size:  6.5 in x 4.5 in (16.5 cm x 11 cm)
• Collation: [v], [1], 306 pp
• Illustrations:
• Contents Include:
  • Preface by Webster
• Reference(s): Shaw & Shoemaker 14188

Condition:

Bound in full leather with moderate wear to hinges and corners. The binding remains secure and text block complete. Pages are toned consistent with age but intact throughout. Overall a good example of this scarce school dictionary.

Why Collect This?                                               

• First edition of Webster’s early dictionary
• A landmark in American language history

Item Number: #29268