Webster, Noah | First edition of the most important American dictionary

Webster, Noah

An American Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Hezekiah Howe in New Haven for S. Converse, 1828

2 volumes, 4to (305 x 230 mm). Advertisement leaf laid in, frontispiece portrait of Webster by A. B. Durand after S. F. B. Morse in vol. I, title to each volume, "Additions and Corrections" leaf at end of vol. II, text in three columns; dampstaining to frontispiece, some spotting, browning, and scattered staining, more pronounced though primarily marginal staining in vol. II from "SEPARATE" to "SOAK." Original drab paper-covered boards, untrimmed with a few gatherings unopened; some staining, rubbed with some loss, joints only just holding, spine panels perished. Each volume housed in custom clamshell case.

First edition of the most important American dictionary.

Webster wrote out by hand the more than 70,000 entries for this, "the most ambitious publication ever undertaken, up to that time, upon American soil." Proclaimed a born lexicographer by Sir James Murray (editor of the Oxford English Dictionary), Webster "succeeded in breaking the fetters imposed upon American English by Johnson, to the ultimate benefit of the living languages of both countries" (PMM).

REFERENCES:

Grolier/American 36; Printing & the Mind of Man 291; Sabin 102335; Skeel 583

PROVENANCE:

Contemporary gift inscription from Seth (?)Ancheus to (?)Leman Church (front free endpaper of vol. I