Editing Timothy Dexter (section)

== Writing ==
{{Wikisource|A Pickle for the Knowing Ones|A Pickle for the Knowing Ones}}

At age 50, Dexter authored the book ''[[A Pickle for the Knowing Ones]]'', also known as ''Plain Truth in a Homespun Dress''. in which he complained about [[politician]]s, the [[clergy]], and his wife. The book contains 8,847 words and 33,864 letters, but without any punctuation and with unorthodox spelling and capitalization. Dexter also signs his name at the end of each chapter, as though they were letters. One section begins:<ref name="Gencarella2018" />
 
{{Blockquote|text='Ime the first Lord in the younited States of A mercary Now of Newburyport it is the voise of the peopel and I can't Help it and so Let it goue'}}

The first edition was [[self-publishing|self-published]] in [[Salem, Massachusetts]], in 1802. Dexter initially distributed his book for free, but it became popular and was reprinted eight times.<ref name="rdstrange"/> The second edition was printed in [[Newburyport, Massachusetts|Newburyport]] in 1805.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Currier |first1=John J. |title=History of Newburyport, Mass., 1764–1905|location=Newburyport|date=1906 |publisher=Dalcassian Publishing Company |page=495}}</ref> In the second edition, Dexter responded to complaints about the book's lack of punctuation by adding an extra page of 11 lines of punctuation marks with the instruction that printers and readers could insert them wherever needed—or, in his words, "thay may peper and solt it as they plese".<ref>Nelson, Randy F. ''The Almanac of American Letters''. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: p. 207. {{ISBN|978-0-86576-008-0}}</ref>