Noah Webster
Virginia Smith
English II
Ms. McCarty
November 01, 2013
Noah Webster: Birth of the Dictionary Noah Webster was born on October, 17th in West Hartford, Connecticut. His father was also Noah Webster; a farmer with some government importance. Webster’s mother was Mercy Webster, the great-great granddaughter of William Bradford, governor of Plymouth colony. Noah was the fourth out of five kids, and the second son that had been born (Frank Magil 1417). When Webster was merely sixteen years old, he was accepted to Yale, and studied law for quite some time until he realized he did not want to be a lawyer. Noah became a teacher instead, but after a few years of teaching, he decided he did not like the way the school textbooks were written. Noah wrote new textbooks himself to help educate children properly (“20 years, one assistant, 700,000 words”). Noah is famous for the dictionary, but he also wrote a tremendous amount of other grammar and textbooks. In 1783, Webster published his first book part one of A Grammatical Institute of the English Language. Later, he published the second part, and finally the third part in 1785 (Frank Magil 1417). “English is a sensible language, but not always a logical language.” (“20 years, one assistant, 700,000 words”). Noah contributed to the English language by helping the schools with new textbooks. He also helped congress pass a copyright bill that protected writers in 1831. He toured from Maine to Georgia selling textbooks. Webster is somewhat credited with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary which is still used today. He is also one of the founders of Amherst College (“Noah Webster”). Although Noah wrote one of the most used books in the world, he did not receive full credit for the famous dictionary. When Webster died on May 28th, 1843 in New Haven, Connecticut, the rights to the dictionary were sold to George and Charles Merriam. The two brothers gave some recognition as proved in the
English II
Ms. McCarty
November 01, 2013
Noah Webster: Birth of the Dictionary Noah Webster was born on October, 17th in West Hartford, Connecticut. His father was also Noah Webster; a farmer with some government importance. Webster’s mother was Mercy Webster, the great-great granddaughter of William Bradford, governor of Plymouth colony. Noah was the fourth out of five kids, and the second son that had been born (Frank Magil 1417). When Webster was merely sixteen years old, he was accepted to Yale, and studied law for quite some time until he realized he did not want to be a lawyer. Noah became a teacher instead, but after a few years of teaching, he decided he did not like the way the school textbooks were written. Noah wrote new textbooks himself to help educate children properly (“20 years, one assistant, 700,000 words”). Noah is famous for the dictionary, but he also wrote a tremendous amount of other grammar and textbooks. In 1783, Webster published his first book part one of A Grammatical Institute of the English Language. Later, he published the second part, and finally the third part in 1785 (Frank Magil 1417). “English is a sensible language, but not always a logical language.” (“20 years, one assistant, 700,000 words”). Noah contributed to the English language by helping the schools with new textbooks. He also helped congress pass a copyright bill that protected writers in 1831. He toured from Maine to Georgia selling textbooks. Webster is somewhat credited with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary which is still used today. He is also one of the founders of Amherst College (“Noah Webster”). Although Noah wrote one of the most used books in the world, he did not receive full credit for the famous dictionary. When Webster died on May 28th, 1843 in New Haven, Connecticut, the rights to the dictionary were sold to George and Charles Merriam. The two brothers gave some recognition as proved in the