- 139
Webster, Noah
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 USD
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Description
- ink and paper
An American Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Hezikiah Howe in New Haven for S. Converse, 1828
2 volumes, folio (11 1/4 x 9 in.; 285 x 228 mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Webster by A. B. Durand after S. F. B. Morse; portrait spotted, some minor marginal spotting in first title and in a few quires, dampstain in final quires of first volume. 19th-century maroon three-quarter calf over green pebbled cloth, gold-stamped leather title labels; extremities torn and rubbed, some scuff marks. and tears in spines.
2 volumes, folio (11 1/4 x 9 in.; 285 x 228 mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Webster by A. B. Durand after S. F. B. Morse; portrait spotted, some minor marginal spotting in first title and in a few quires, dampstain in final quires of first volume. 19th-century maroon three-quarter calf over green pebbled cloth, gold-stamped leather title labels; extremities torn and rubbed, some scuff marks. and tears in spines.
Literature
Cordell / O'Neill W-221; Grolier / American 36; PMM 291; Sabin 102335; Skeel 583
Catalogue Note
First edition. Webster wrote out by hand the more than 70,000 entries of this, "the most ambitious publication every undertaken, up to that time, upon American soil." Proclaimed a born lexicographer by Sir James Murray (editor of the OED), Webster "succeeded in breaking the fetters imposed upon American English by Johnson, to the ultimate benefit of the living languages of both countries."