Books and Manuscripts

New York: Published by S. Converse. Printed by Hezekiah Howe--New Haven, 1828. In two volumes. First edition (one of only 2,500 copies printed). Thick 4to. Unpaginated. Printed in three columns. With "Additions--Corrections" leaf at end of second volume; without ad leaf sometimes found tipped or bound into first volume. Illustrated with engraved frontispiece portrait of Webster by A.B. Durand after S.F.H. Morse, in first volume. Three-quarter brown calf over marbled paper-covered boards, red morocco spine labels, stamped in gilt; top edges trimmed, other edges untrimmed; foxing and dampstaining to frontispiece; foxing to each title-page; moderate to heavy foxing throughout each volume. Skeel 583; Sabin 102335; Grolier, 100 American, 36; PMM 291

First edition of Noah Webster's highly important American dictionary of the English language, considered "the most ambitious publication ever undertaken, up to that time, upon American soil." (Dictionary of American Biography). Guided by a nationalistic desire to codify a distinctly American language, Webster began publishing spelling books, grammars, and readers, for children, in the 1780s. His work in lexicography began in 1800, and this unabridged dictionary was preceded by a much shorter duodecimo version in 1806, Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. With the publication of this set, "Webster set a new standard for etymological investigation, and for accuracy of definition, and included 70,000 words, as against the 58,000 of any previous dictionary." (Grolier).