Websterisms: A Collection of Words and Definitions Set Forth by the Founding Father of American English (review)

The name Webster is known in every American household; however despite several biographies and the somewhat recent publication of a collection of his letters, essays, and diaries, the life and work of the man who produced the American Dictionary of the English Language is not widely known. After leaving Yale University and volunteering in the American Revolution, Noah Webster developed a legal practice, worked as a schoolteacher, developed school textbooks, fought for the ratification of copyright laws, contributed to the Constitution, and edited the American Magazine and the American Minerva. Although Websterisms doesn't offer a deep look into his biography, the compilation of words and definitions here might spark more interest in the man responsible for the dictionary. This work should be of some interest not only to students of language, Webster, and the new republic but also to a more general audience interested in works like Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue, Melvyn Bragg's Adventures of English, and Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman.

The work begins with an introductory essay by Jill Lepore, who expands upon her original New Yorker piece. Here, Lepore provides a valuable framework for understanding how the dictionary came to be. She emphasizes Webster's paradoxical ideas about language and politics and demonstrates why Webster's endeavors to create the work were so poorly received: Federalists viewed the work as radical—too inclusive in its lexicon and even bordering on vulgar—while Republicans, remaining true to their party, attacked the man, labeling him mad for such an undertaking. Despite her admission to his sometimes tedious and dull writing style and almost always disagreeable nature, Lepore champions Webster's innovation and persistence, depicting a man who survived harsh criticisms from all sides to finally produce a work that contributed so much to the formation of a national identity. Of course, these disparagements make an interesting story and do show the micropolitical context of the work. What is missing in the essay is how the dictionary was finally so well received—this is explained only briefly with mention of the Second Great Awakening and the demise of the Federalist Party—and its larger impact on American culture. In addition, because the essay focuses so much on patriotism and the early American political scene, general readers may forget the large influence that Christianity played in the book's original compilation and may overlook the work's greater social influence to future generations. Influences like religion, literature, and etymology and Webster's own convictions are only glossed over in the brief essay by Arthur Schulman.

The bulk of the work is Schulman's compilation of about 1,500 entries from Webster's original 1828 text, and Schulman should be congratulated for selecting a catalog that highlights the broad range of Webster's vision and reveals much about the culture of the early republic, from labor, trade, and science to law, history, and even linguistics. The entries include highbrow references to Johnson, Swift, Pope, and Shakespeare to American sources like Franklin, Washington, and Irving and incorporate a broad range of witticisms, proverbs, and biblical and literary allusions. Those entries deriving from regional colloquialisms are especially interesting; it becomes clear that the enduring value of the work is its capture of the language of the common man, the illiterate and vulgar for which Webster was initially so widely criticized. While marginal notes added by Schulman place some entries in their historical context and identify the origins of others, the boxed notes that break the text can be a bit distracting. Still, the collection is accessible and digestible to the average reader and illustrates both Webster's standpoint on issues of his day and the overall genius and relevance of the work during the early days of the republic and beyond.