Webster, Noah | I am still learning as much as I was 40 years ago

Webster, Noah

Autograph letter signed, ("N Webster")

1 1/2 pp., 4to, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet (250 x 190 mm), nd, to unnamed editors ("Messrs Editors") on his reasoning for spelling reforms and the generally poor state of editing and philology in both England and America. 

Webster seems to be in the midst of a campaign to explain his reasons for his corrected spelling for words and for making these standard. He refers in this letter to a periodical a number of short articles for newspapers and directs the reader to his dictionary.

"The ignorance or negligence which introduced wrong spelling, & in some cases made words which are nonsense & then permitted these words to occupy a place in our best books, even the Bible, for centuries, appeared to me an abuse of the language. ..."

He goes on to single out those across the Atlantic that are poor editors, "I am educated in all the errors and blunders of the English books ..."