The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture

Joshua Kendall

Format
Paperback
Publisher
Penguin Putnam Inc
Country
United States
Published
6 March 2012
Pages
416
ISBN
9780425245453

The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster’s Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture

Joshua Kendall

Noah Webster’s name is now synonymous with the dictionary he created, but his story is not nearly so ubiquitous. Now acclaimed author of The Man Who Made Lists, Joshua Kendall sheds new light on Webster’s life, and his far-reaching influence in establishing the American nation.Webster hobnobbed with various Founding Fathers and was a young confidant of George Washington and Ben Franklin. He started New York’s first daily newspaper, predating Alexander Hamilton’s New York Post. His blue-backed speller for schoolchildren sold millions of copies and influenced early copyright law. But perhaps most important, Webster was an ardent supporter of a unified, definitively American culture, distinct from the British, at a time when the United States of America were anything but unified-and his dictionary of American English is a testament to that.

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