Noah Webster started with the letter A. He dipped his feather pen in the inkwell, placed it on his notebook, and began writing: “A is the first letter of the Alphabet in most of the known languages on earth.” He continued by describing A as a letter, a word, and a prefix. He explained its application as a musical term and its usage throughout the centuries. He ended with a complete account of its relationship to Greek and Latin and its use on an ancient Roman calendar. By the time he was done, some seven hundred words later, the first definition of his masterpiece, An American Dictionary of the English Language , was complete. He had seventy thousand more definitions to write. It was a project he was willing to work long and hard for.
Writing textbooks was nothing new to Noah. During the twen- ty-five years before he began writing the American Dictionary , he published books on spelling, grammar, reading, and a four-vol- ume series covering the history, animals, and geography of the United States. One of his texts, The American Speller , more com- monly known as The Blue-Backed Speller, was printed nearly one hundred million times. From the time of its first release in 1783 through the late 1800s, it helped teach millions of school- children to spell, read, and pronounce words. It also helped create and popularize spelling bees. This is how Noah became known as America’s schoolmaster.
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