The Elementary Spelling Book - Webster, Noah

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Résumé :
The father of American scholarship and education, American lexicographer NOAH WEBSTER (1758-1843) was an author whose astonishingly prolific career included numerous textbooks for elementary education. Prior to his works coming into wide use in the late 18th century, colonial and American students learned from primers imported from England. Webster single-handedly prompted a democratization of American English in how his textbooks taught American children to read, spell, and pronounce words, and in how he Americanized spelling, changing some c's to s's, dropping some l's and u's. Without Webster, George Bernard Shaw may never have been able to quip that England and America were two nations separated by a common language. Webster's basic textbook, first called The First Part of the Grammatical Institute of the English Language and later The American Spelling Book, became, in 1829, The Elementary Spelling Book. Though the book went through hundreds of editions, this replica edition represents the last, greatest, and arguably the most influential one. It is an extraordinary firsthand look at how American English was shaped.

Biographie:
American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and novelist Noah Webster Jr. lived from October 16, 1758, to May 28, 1843. The Father of American Scholarship and Education is how some have referred to him. He taught spelling and reading to five generations of American children using his Blue-backed Speller books. In the United States, the word dictionary has come to be associated with Webster's name, particularly with the contemporary Merriam-Webster dictionary, which debuted in 1828 as an American Dictionary of the English Language. Webster, who was born in West Hartford, Connecticut, earned his Yale College degree in 1778. After studying law under Oliver Ellsworth and others, he passed the bar test but could not get a job as a lawyer. By starting a private school and penning a number of instructional publications, such as Blue-Backed Speller, he was able to achieve some financial success. Webster, who was a fervent advocate of the American Revolution and the passage of the US Constitution, later complained that American society lacked an intellectual basis. Because American ideals were superior, he thought that American nationalism was superior to that of Europe.