A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Webster, Noah
Webster, Noah (1758-1843).—Lexicographer, etc., b. at Hartford, Conn., and ed. at Yale. His long life was spent in unremitting diligence as teacher, lawyer, and man of letters. His great work is his American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), for which he prepared himself by 10 years' study of philology. Many abridgments of it have appeared, and in 1866 a new and enlarged ed. was pub. His Elementary Spelling Book is believed to have attained a circulation of 70,000,000 copies. He also pub. A Philosophical and Practical Grammar of the English Language (1807), and many other works.