A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE; COMPILED FOR THE USE OF COMMON SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES by WEBSTER, NOAH - 1807

N[ew] Haven: Sidney's Press . . . for John and David West, Boston......Brisban and Brannan, N. York.......Lincoln and Gleason, and Oliver D. Cooke, Hartford......and I. Cooke and Co. New-Haven, 1807. First School Edition. 164 x 106 mm. (6 3/8 x 4 1/8"). 4 p.l. (first blank), 306 pp.
Contemporary sheep, black leather label on flat spine. In an excellent recent clamshell box of calf-backed marbled paper boards. Front flyleaf flamboyantly inscribed in ink "Augustus W. Smith" and dated "Decm. the 5th 1814"; pastedowns and free endpapers with practice signatures, columns of numbers and sums, and a pencil sketch of a young man in profile. ◆Binding with considerable general wear, though absolutely solid, with the joints scarcely rubbed. A couple of leaves a bit proud, text with light browning throughout and not infrequent small stains consistent with heavy use, but still somehow an appealing copy, given its sound survival after giving service as a school book.

Published the year after Webster's first English Dictionary and two decades before his magnum opus, this volume was aimed at the audience Webster most wanted to reach--schoolchildren. After graduating from Yale and briefly studying law, Webster (1758-1843) established an elementary school and discovered the need for spelling and grammar books in the new country. According to ANB, "Webster believed that the new nation needed a feeling of identity, a consciousness of self that bound it together and distinguished it from others. Not surprisingly, Webster concluded that this revolution of mind and heart should begin with children and with the acquisition of books that would reflect the American language, culture, and history." He produced textbooks on spelling and grammar, and issued his first dictionary in 1806. It was, the Merriam-Webster website informs us, "the first truly American dictionary," and "the first to document distinctively American vocabulary such as skunk," defined here as "a quadruped remarkable for smell." Condensed from the 1806 edition, our book was intended for the use of pupils, and that was indeed its fate. It would appear that Augustus W. Smith was proud to own the present volume and that he consulted it frequently. Our copy is nevertheless in a remarkably good state compared to others that have appeared on the market..