Noah+Webster

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Tu-We/Webster-Noah.html

1.) Born on October 16, 1758 in West Hartford, Connecticut 2.) Forth son of 5 children 3.) Noah and Mercy Steele Weber are his parents 4.) Entered Yale Collage at 16 5.) Collage was interrupted by military service 6.) Graduated in 1778 7.) Tried studying law but had to work 8.) His father could no longer support him 9.) He became a Schoolmaster in Hartford, Litchfield and Sharon (All in connecticut) 10.) Received Masters of Arts Degree in 1781 11.) Dissatisfied at British-made textbooks available for teaching, he was going to produce his own. 12.) "Too much pride to stand indebted to Great Britain for books to learn our children." 13.) Developed the first long series of American school books 14.) It was called ‘A grammatical Institute of the English’ 15.) Webster toured the U.S. (from Maine to Georgia) selling his textbooks 16.) "America must be as independent in literature as she is in politics, as famous for arts as for arms.” 17.) Pleaded for American intellectual independence, education for women, and the support of Federalist ideas. 18.) Tried to inform or improve the English language 19.) After getting married in 1789, he practiced law in Hartford for 4 years 20.) Retired in New Haven, Connecticut

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2544/Webster-Noah-1758-1843.html

1.) Composed 3 school books out of inspiration of the school districts 2.) He believed this would unify the new nation through speaking and writing a common language 3.) He thought of doing this since most American school books were British reprints 4.) Took an 18 month tour to promote his books, while also registering them for state copyright 5.) Later began editing periodicals in New York; the ‘American Magazine’ for a year and the pro-federalist ‘American Minerva’ 6.) He retreated from politics and periodicals and open a privet school in New Haven 7.) Published an unsuccessful history of epidemics 8.) Afterwards he wrote the first 3 volumes of ‘Elements of Useful Knowledge’ 9.) 1790: Obtained national copyright protection for his speller 10.) The income from his speller can at a penny a copy in 1804 11.) This could not support his family so he moved in 1812 to Amherst, Massachusetts 12.) Founded Amherst Academy (Now known as Amherst Collage) 13.) Sold the rights to the ‘American Spelling Book’ in 1816 14.) Rights sold to Hudson and Company in Hartford, Connecticut 15.) This was done so he can work on his major dictionary 16.) 1824: Voyaged to Europe to complete the dictionary 17.) ‘An American Dictionary of the English Language’ was published in New York in 1828 18.) Made a final revision to his speller ‘Elementary Spelling Book’ 19.) Before his death in 1843 he issued 7 more school books and a bowdlerized edition of the Bible 20.) He was able to change the way many words are now spelled

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1.) Permanently altered the spelling of the English language 2.) Taught millions of American children how to read 3.) There were once puzzling conversations on the spelling of the English language 4.) Mainly the only influential person of spelling reform was Noah 5.) Tried to get rid of silent letters (like ‘Bread’ would instead be spelt ‘Bred’) 6.) Could have substituted some letter from being vague to definite 7.) Most of the changes were made so their wouldn’t be much mistake in pronunciation 8.) Mainly tried to simplify the English language 9.) This was done 4 decades before he published the ‘American Dictionary of the English Language’ 10.) "An Essay on the Necessity, Advantages and Practicability of Reforming the Mode of Spelling, and of Rendering the Orthography of Words Correspondent to Pronunciation" (‘Dissertations on the English Language’ 1789) 11.) A few proposed rules (such as some listed above) for English spelling were not adopted 12.) ‘Grammatical Institute of the English Language’ (known as ‘Blue-Backed speller’) Changed the spelling of some words such as the missing ‘u’ in ‘Honor’

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1.) The appearance of Webster’s first dictionary mainly strengthened his influence 2.) There were many other dictionaries that were in use before his 3.) There were many critics that questioned him 4.) He remained unchallenged in making dictionaries 5.) There has been active public demand for an all American dictionary 6.) America was far ahead in dictionary making thanEngland 7.) His dictionary practically made an assault on the prejudice of English lexicographers 8.) Some ideas for spelling changes he discarded himself after they have failed to take root

http://www.lexrex.com/bios/nwebster.htm

1.) His books taught children to read and spell for a 100 years 2.) Made the dictionary since people in different parts of the country spelled and pronounced words differantly 3.) He worked for copyright laws 4.) Founded New York's first daily news paper 5.) Not many people went to college in his time 6.) He liked to learn so he was sent to Yale 7.) At this time New Haven had food shortages from the Revolutionary war 8.) War interfered and his classes were held in Glastonbury 9.) Yale was the only collage in Connecticut at the time

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1.) Died on May 28, 1843 2.) Both speller and dictionary reflected his principle that spelling, grammar, and usage should be based upon the living, spoken language rather than on artificial rules 3.) In his lifetime he was a teacher, grammarian, journalist, essayist, lecturer, and lobbyist 4.) He was admitted to the bar in 1781 5.) He taught in Goshen, NY in 1782 6.) While there, he was dissatisfied that texts for children ignored American culture 7.) His 'Blue-Backed Speller' provided most of his income for the rest of his life 8.) An estimated 100,000,000 copies sold 9.) His Grammar was based on the principle that “grammar is formed on language, and not language on grammar” 10.) He made letters to state legislatures and travelled widely for uniformed copyright laws 11.) Till around 1790 there wasn't any federal copyright laws, which left popular books to the risk of piracy

Work Cited "Noah Webster Biography - Life, Children, Death, History, School, Young, Son, Book, Information, Born, College." //Encyclopedia of World Biography//. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. . Noah Webster (1758–1843) - Webster's Innovations, Perfecting the Spelling Book for Reading Instruction, Other Works "Noah Webster's Plan to Reform English Spelling - Conventions of American English - Webster's Spelling Campaign." //Grammar and Composition - Homepage of About Grammar and Composition//. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. . "Chapter 8. American Spelling. 2. The Influence of Webster. Mencken, H.L. 1921. The American Language." //Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More//. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. . "Noah Webster Writings and Biography." //L E X R E X: Rescuing the REPUBLIC - One Heart, and One Mind at a Time//. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. . "Noah Webster Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com." //Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com//. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. .