Editing Webster's Dictionary (section)

== Noah Webster's ''American Dictionary of the English Language'' ==

[[Noah Webster]] (1758–1843), the author of the readers and spelling books which dominated the American market at the time, spent decades of research in compiling his dictionaries. His first dictionary, ''A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language'', appeared in 1806. In it, he popularized features which would become a hallmark of American English spelling (''center'' rather than ''centre'', ''honor'' rather than ''honour'', ''program'' rather than ''programme'', etc.) and included technical terms from the arts and sciences rather than confining his dictionary to literary words. Webster was a proponent of [[English-language spelling reform|English spelling reform]] for reasons both [[philology|philological]] and nationalistic. In ''A Companion to the American Revolution'' (2008), John Algeo notes: "it is often assumed that characteristically 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>Algeo, John. "The Effects of the Revolution on Language", in ''A Companion to the American Revolution''. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. p. 599</ref> In [[William Shakespeare]]'s [[First Folio]]s, for example, spellings such as ''center'' and ''color'' are the most common.<ref>[http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=-or&allowed_in_frame=0 ''-or''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204000026/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=-or&allowed_in_frame=0 |date=February 4, 2015 }}. [[Online Etymology Dictionary]].</ref><ref name=venezky26>Venezky, Richard. ''The American Way of Spelling: The Structure and Origins of American English Orthography''. Guilford Press, 1999. p. 26</ref> He spent the next two decades working to expand his dictionary.

=== First edition 1828 ===
[[File:American Dictionary of the English Language 1828.jpg|thumb|Title page of the 1828 first edition of the ''American Dictionary of the English Language'' featuring an engraving of Noah Webster]]
{{multiple image
| footer    = Extract from the Orthography section of the first edition, which popularized the American standard spellings of ''-er'' (6); ''-or'' (7); dropped ''-e'' (8); ''-se'' (11); doubling consonants with suffix (15)
| width     = 120
| image1    = Webster Orthography 1828 (4-14).jpg
| image2    = Webster Orthography 1828 (15).jpg
}}
In 1828, when Noah Webster was 70, his ''American Dictionary of the English Language'' was published by S. Converse in two [[Bookbinding#Terms and techniques|quarto]] volumes containing 70,000 entries,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://lccn.loc.gov/21012201 |title=Catalog entry |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=April 21, 2021 |archive-date=April 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407155245/https://lccn.loc.gov/21012201 |url-status=live }}</ref> as against the 58,000 of any previous dictionary. There were 2,500 copies printed, at $20 (adjusted for 2023 inflation: $647.73) for the two volumes. At first the set sold poorly. When he lowered the price to $15 (adjusted for 2023 inflation: $485.80), its sales improved, and by 1836 that edition was exhausted.<ref>Skeel, Emily. ''A Bibliography of the Writings of Noah Webster'' (1958), p. 234.</ref> "Not all copies were bound at the same time; the book also appeared in publisher's boards; other original bindings of a later date are not unknown."<ref name="rulon">{{cite web|url=http://www.rulon.com/Catpages/online/recent_acq_sept_2009.html|title=Rulon-Miller Books :: Recent Acquisitions|access-date=May 31, 2011|archive-date=July 23, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723091809/http://www.rulon.com/Catpages/online/recent_acq_sept_2009.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Second edition 1841 ===

==== 1841 printing ====
In 1841, 82-year-old Noah Webster published a second edition of his lexicographical masterpiece with the help of his son, William G. Webster. Its title page does not claim the status of second edition, merely noting that this new edition was the "first edition in octavo" in contrast to the quarto format of the first edition of 1828. Again in two volumes, the title page proclaimed that the ''Dictionary'' contained "the whole vocabulary of the quarto, with corrections, improvements and several thousand additional words: to which is prefixed an introductory dissertation on the origin, history and connection of the languages of western Asia and Europe, with an explanation of the principles on which languages are formed.<ref>Noah Webster, ''An American Dictionary of the English Language'', second edition (New Haven, Connecticut: the author, 1841).</ref> B. L. Hamlen of [[New Haven, Connecticut]], prepared the 1841 printing of the second edition.<ref name="morton">[https://books.google.com/books?id=1dKJrIRXhFgC&q=webster's+unabridged+dictionary Morton, H. C. ''The Story of Webster's Third: Philip Gove's Controversial Dictionary and Its Critics''. Cambridge University Press, 1995] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604062757/https://books.google.com/books?id=1dKJrIRXhFgC&q=webster%27s+unabridged+dictionary |date=June 4, 2023 }} {{ISBN|0-521-55869-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-521-55869-3}}</ref>

==== 1844 printing ====
When Webster died, in 1843, his heirs sold unbound sheets of his 1841 revision ''American Dictionary of the English Language'' to the firm of J. S. & C. Adams of [[Amherst, Massachusetts]]. This firm bound and published a small number of copies in 1844 – the same edition that [[Emily Dickinson]] used as a tool for her poetic composition.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://edl.byu.edu/index.php|title=Emily Dickinson Lexicon|access-date=May 31, 2011|archive-date=August 10, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810234426/http://edl.byu.edu/index.php|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Noah Webster, ''An American Dictionary of the English Language'', second edition (Amherst, Massachusetts: J. S. & C. Adams, 1844).</ref> However, a $15 (adjusted for inflation: $512.78) price tag on the book made it too expensive to sell easily, so the Amherst firm decided to sell out. Merriam acquired rights from Adams, as well as signing a contract with Webster's heirs for sole rights.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://mobile.masslive.com/advmasslive/db_96659/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=bjieKlGe&detailindex=2&pn=0&ps=5&full=true |title="G&C Merriam: Where the words of Noah Webster lived and thrived" Wayne Phaneuf, ''The Republican'' |access-date=May 29, 2011 |archive-date=March 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309230036/http://mobile.masslive.com/advmasslive/db_96659/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=bjieKlGe&detailindex=2&pn=0&ps=5&full=true |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== 1845 printing ====
The third printing of the second edition was by [[George Merriam|George]] and Charles Merriam of [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], in 1845.<ref>Noah Webster, ''An American Dictionary of the English Language'', second edition (Springfield, Massachusetts: George & Charles Merriam, 1845).</ref> This was the first ''Webster's Dictionary'' with a Merriam imprint.<ref name="rulon" />

=== Influence ===
Lepore (2008) demonstrates Webster's innovative ideas about language and politics and shows why Webster's endeavors were at first so poorly received. Culturally conservative [[Federalist Party|Federalists]] denounced the work as radical{{snd}}too inclusive in its lexicon and even bordering on vulgar. Meanwhile, Webster's old foes, the [[Democratic-Republican Party|Jeffersonian Republicans]], attacked the man, labeling him mad for such an undertaking.<ref>Jill Lepore, "Introduction" in Arthur Schulman, ''Websterisms: A Collection of Words and Definitions Set Forth by the Founding Father of American English'' (Free Press, 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 | last1 = Deppman | first1 = Jed | year = 2002 | title = 'I Could Not Have Defined the Change': Rereading Dickinson's Definition Poetry | journal = Emily Dickinson Journal | volume = 11 | issue = 1| 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>

Austin (2005) explores the intersection of lexicographical and poetic practices in American literature, and attempts to map out a "lexical poetics" using Webster's dictionaries. He shows the ways in which American poetry has inherited Webster and drawn upon his lexicography to reinvent it. Austin explicates key definitions from both the ''Compendious'' (1806), and ''American'' (1828) dictionaries and brings into its discourse a range of concerns including the politics of American English, the question of national identity and culture in the early moments of American independence, and the poetics of citation and of definition.{{Full citation needed|date=December 2022}}

Webster's dictionaries were a redefinition of Americanism within the context of an emergent and unstable American socio-political and cultural identity. Webster's identification of his project as a "federal language" shows his competing impulses towards regularity and innovation in historical terms. Perhaps the contradictions of Webster's project represented a part of a larger dialectical play between liberty and order within Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary political debates.<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>