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Summary
Summary
America's own The Professor and the Madman : the story of Noah Webster, author of the first dictionary of American English-and a forgotten leader during a turning point in our nation's history.
Noah Webster's name is now synonymous with the dictionary he created, but although there is much more to his story than that singular achievement, his rightful place in American history has been forgotten over time. Webster hobnobbed with various Founding Fathers and was a young confidant of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, among others. He started New York City's first daily newspaper, predating Alexander Hamilton's New York Post . His "blue- backed speller" for schoolchildren, his first literary effort, sold millions of copies and influenced early copyright law. He helped found Amherst College and served as a state representative for both Connecticut and Massachusetts. 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.
In The Forgotten Founding Father, Joshua Kendall, author of The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus, gives us a well-researched and absorbing look into the life of Webster, another man driven by his obsessions and compulsions to compile and organize words. The result is a treat for word lovers and history buffs alike.
Author Notes
Joshua Kendall is a language enthusiast and an award-winning freelance journalist whose work has appeared in such publications as The Boston Globe , The Wall Street Journal , and Psychology Today . He lives in Boston.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In 1828 Noah Webster published the groundbreaking American Dictionary of the English Language and secured his niche as an avatar of a distinct American culture. Kendall (The Man Who Made Lists) honors Webster's crucial contributions to early American nationalism, which extended far beyond his primary obsession, the written word. Kendall paints a complex portrait of Webster (1758-1843), a man he claims "housed a host of contradictory identities: revolutionary, reactionary, fighter, peacemaker, intellectual, commonsense philosopher, ladies' man, prig, slick networker and loner." In spite of his flaws, Webster, Kendall argues not wholly successfully, belongs among the ranks of America's notable founders, associating with George Washington and Ben Franklin, among others, to craft an early American identity rooted in national pride and a distinctly American lexicon. Citing frequent references to Webster's nervous afflictions, Kendall ventures the somewhat shaky diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The book includes the politics of the "forgotten" founder, for example, noting that Webster "detested Andrew Jackson as the second coming of Jefferson," and a wide range of his activities, including helping found Amherst College. Kendall provides an intriguing look at one of America's earliest men of letters that is sure to appeal to lovers of both words and history. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
In a natural sequel to his biography of the Roget of thesaurus fame, The Man Who Made Lists (2008), Kendall highlights the personality of America's seminal lexicographer, humanizing the name synonymous with dictionaries. Noah Webster's most salient trait, Kendall says, was obsessive/compulsive personality disorder. If that's true, it cost Webster much in society, business, and politics, as Kendall's quotations of the hostile opinions extracted from his comprehensive research attest. Webster was arrogant and tactless, but his fixations on orderliness and precision with words were indispensable to the achievement of his renowned dictionary, first published in 1828. Besides stressing the warts-and-all motif, Kendall links Webster to revolutionary America's illustrious patriots (Webster knew Washington, Franklin, and Hamilton) and the country's nascent literary stratum, in which his argumentative inclinations thrived, though not often profitably. Completing his well-rounded portrait, Kendall sensitively depicts the dynamics of Webster's family, almost sighing over the demands the self-centered Webster placed on wife and children. Doyens of diction as well as of early American history stand to be pleased by this perceptive, fluidly written biography.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Freelance journalist Kendall (The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus, 2008) tells the story of the remarkable Noah Webster (17581843)lexicographer, political theorist, journalist, co-founder of Amherst College, polymath.The author notes that many Americans confuse Webster with his more famous distant cousin Daniel. But Kendall's biography may change that. Born on a farm in Hartford, Conn., Webster attended school only a few months a year but entered Yale in 1774, where he befriended poet Joel Barlow (with whom he fell out, over religion, many decades later). Webster became the friend and acquaintance of many of the luminaries of the American Revolution, George Washington among them, but he struggled to find a career. He tried teaching and the law, struggling in both. However, he wrote fiery pamphlets and newspaper essays and then published his famous spelling book that, off and on, enriched him, frustrated him and propelled him into celebrity. It also occasioned the genesis of the spelling bee. Kendall argues that Webster invented the author tour, a contention that is hard to denyhe traveled all over the country promoting his writing, making deals, pressing flesh, smiling and schmoozing. He was also an early abolitionist. He first found career stability in journalism, editing the Federalist newspaperAmerican Minerva. Just before the turn of the century, he found another love: lexicography. Kendall writes that Webster had a most orderly mind, which sought to categorize and record everything. Though his was not the first American dictionary, it was by far the most thorough and influential. The American Dictionaryappeared in 1828, was a quick success and lives on as Merriam-Webster's (the Merriam family joined the enterprise in 1843).A gracefully told story that commands attention and confers on Webster deserved honor too long deferred.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Kendall (The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus) provides a compelling chronicle of the foremost name in American lexicography. A part of the celebrated Yale graduating class of 1778 and a lifelong social and political conservative, Noah Webster had a penchant for rubbing people the wrong way as pronounced as his knack for words. His mechanism for coping with recurrent depression, compiling data, would lead to the creation of one of the best-known works in American history. While lacking in pure literary talent, Webster was a master of self-promotion who relentlessly lobbied for extensive copyright laws, a stronger national union, and the creation of a uniquely American identity. VERDICT Though the title of Kendall's work may overplay Webster's political legacy, this is certainly a poignant look into the life of a figure who played a central role in the historical development of the American language. Kendall capably delves beyond the realm of words and into Webster's social and intellectual worlds. Recommended for fans of historical biography and early American cultural history.-Brian Odom, -Pelham P.L., AL (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
Prologue: George Washington's Cultural Attaché: The Definer of American Identity | p. 1 |
Part 1 From Farmboy to Best-Selling Author | |
1 Hartford Childhood and Yale Manhood | p. 11 |
2 Spelling the New Nation | p. 54 |
3 Traveling Salesman | p. 78 |
Part 2 Founding Father | |
4 Counting His Way across America | p. 103 |
5 Courtship at the Constitutional Convention | p. 130 |
6 Marriage and a Turn Away from Words | p. 155 |
7 Editor of New York City's First Daily | p. 183 |
Part 3 Lexicographer | |
8 Setting His Sights on Johnson and Johnson | p. 209 |
9 Paterfamilias | p. 237 |
10 A Lost Decade | p. 257 |
11 The Walking Dictionary | p. 285 |
12 ôMore Fleshy Than Ever Beforeö | p. 309 |
Epilogue: Webster's after Webster: The Director of Defining | p. 329 |
Acknowledgments | p. 335 |
A Note on Sources | p. 338 |
Illustration Credits | p. 346 |
Index | p. 347 |