A Complete Leaf from the Original Great Dictionary of Noah Webster, With References to the Bible, Bacon, Pope, the Odyssey, Shakespeare, others

Examples of this depth and quality rarely reach the market; this has been in a private collection for generations

 

Noah Webster was a lexicographer and a language reformer. He is often called the Father of American Scholarship and Education. In his lifetime he was also a lawyer, schoolmaster, author, newspaper editor and an outspoken politician.

Noah Webster was a friend of George Washington, and was once dubbed by biographer as a “forgotten founding father.” He was also a Federalist and dedicated revolutionary who deeply loved his country. Webster felt that American usage of the English language was different than usage in Britain, and that Americans deserved for this to be acknowledged. So in 1806, he published his first dictionary, which was his first attempt to accomplish that goal, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. Then in 1807 he began working on an even more comprehensive edition, and in 1828 this was published as An American Dictionary of the English Language. The Dictionary was a revolution in the English language, and received accolades throughout the United States. Though the first English dictionary dates back to 1604, it was Webster and his 1828 volume that was credited with capturing the language of the new nation.

The bulk of Webster’s manuscript—over 450 leaves—now resides in The Morgan Library & Museum—and rarely appear for sale, particularly as a complete page.

Full leaf of the original manuscript, two sides, from the 1828 first edition of Webster’s Dictionary. no date or place but likely Cambridge prior to 1825, containing definitions of bear and bare and related phrases, along with references to its use by various English authors.

Webster adds references to named authors here and some of those do not appear in the final version. In all, it is a fascinating and rare glimpse into Webster’s work.

A handful of examples of the longer two-sided manuscript.

“To bear in hand, to amuse with false pretenses. [Francis] Bacon. Shakespeare. I believe this phrase is obsolete or never used in America.”

“Bear v. Bare. to suffer as with pain. ‘But man is born to Bare.’ Pope” – This line comes from Alexander Pope’s translation of Homer’s “Odyssey”

“To be patient, to endure. ‘I cannot cannot bear.’ Dryden”

“To act in any character. ‘Instruct me how I may bear like a true friar'” – Here he notes “Shakespeare”, a reference to that form of bear’s inclusion in his play “Measure for Measure”

“To bear with… ‘shall not God avenge his elect, though he bear long with them.’ Luke 18.7.”

The most interesting and important Webster we have ever carried.