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INSIDE
THIS ISSUE
1 Spring Is Springing 2 West Hartford Knows Ice
Include Mother Nature in Your Next Date
3 Sugar Maple Trees
Vegan Red Velvet Cake 4 A Book about a Hometown Hero — Noah Webster
“Noah Webster: The Life and Times of an American Patriot” by Harlow Giles Unger A CIVIC-MINDED MAN: NOAHWEBSTER
It’s remarkable to think that West Hartford is the birthplace of one of the most influential people in American history. Noah Webster lived much of his life in Connecticut. He was born in
American Dictionary of the English Language, which was published in 1828. You can thank him for the way we spell many words we use today. While he didn’t specifically change
West Hartford in 1758 and died in New Haven in 1843. He was a man of the world and ahead of his time. There’s one book that captures what it was like to be this man: “Noah Webster: The Life and Times of an American Patriot” by Harlow Giles Unger. While this biography originally came out in 1998, it holds up well 22 years later as an excellent profile of the incredible man. Webster was a teacher, a writer, and a patriot. In his days as a teacher, he was annoyed by the fact that he taught students using outdated books that were imported from England. He believed children should be learning from modern American books — so he went to work creating those books! He created books that taught spelling, grammar, and reading.
the spelling of words like color (from colour) or center (from centre), he decided to use the simpler versions of the words in his new dictionary. He thought the simple versions of words were better. As his biography reveals, there are many parallels between what Webster wrote about 200 years ago and today. As someone who was active in business and civil life, he was well educated and involved in his community. He also knew the dangers of plagues and pandemics. He wrote about social distancing and what was needed to slow the progress of pandemics, because Americans were going through similar problems back then. It’s remarkable to see how far we’ve come as a country, but still face many of the same issues.
If you want to learn more about our hometown hero, “Noah Webster: The Life and Times of an American Patriot” is a great place to start.
Of course, as most people know, Webster was instrumental in the creation of the dictionary, specifically, An
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