Noah Webster and the American Dictionary

About the book

Noah Webster was described by the publisher of a competing dictionary as "a vain...plodding Yankee, who aspired to be a second Johnson" - a criticism that rings mostly true. He was certainly vain and, born in Connecticut, undeniably a Yankee. Moreover, though he referred to Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language as a "barren desart of philology," the American lexicographer relied heavily on the book during the creation of his own American Dictionary, going so far as to filch whole sections...Show more