Noah Websteran 18th century American patriot, copyright pioneer and author of a dictionary that sustains his name centuries later. Born in West Hartford, Connecticut in 1758, Webster is known both for fighting in the American Revolution and for his position as being a strong advocate for the Constitutional Convention. His admiration of valiant creative people and their regard for the preservation of their civil ideals was surpassed by the feeling of lament at how hesitant they could be when it came to the protection of their own interests. Intensely believing in the development of the United States cultural independence, he realized the necessity of a fundamental element of a unique American language with its own style, pronunciation and idiom (White 5). In 1806, Webster published A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, the first true American dictionary and Websters first small lexicographical work. Subsequently, he went to work on his classic masterpiece, An American Dictionary of the English Language. He learned a total of 26 languagesincluding Anglo-Saxon and Sanskritin order to research the foundation of his own country's native tongue. Published in 1828, this book embodied a new pattern of lexicography. Its 70,000 entries surpassed Samuel Johnson's 1755 British masterpiece not only in scope but also in authority (King 73). Noah Websters Calvinist family was typical of the colonial times; born in modest circumstances, Noah longed for elite social status (Bush 1508). His father farmed and worked as a weaver; his mother worked at home. Noah and his two brothers, Charles and Abraham, helped their father with the farm work while their sisters, Mercy and Jerusha, worked with their mother to keep house and feed and clothe the family. Noah loved to learn so his parents let him attend Yale, which was Connecticut's only college, and he graduated in the class of 1778. Although he was initially unable to study law beca...
