Noah Webster

by Horace Elisha Scudder

Biography of Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 - May 28, 1843), an American lexicographer, textbook author, spelling reformer, word enthusiast, and editor. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education." His "Blue-Backed Speller" books were used to teach spelling and reading to five generations of American children. In the United States, his name has become synonymous with dictionaries, especially the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary that was first published in 1828 as An American Dictionary of the English Language.

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1881

About the author

Horace Elisha Scudder (1838-1902) was a prolific American man of letters and editor. He graduated from Williams College in 1858, taught school in New York City, and subsequently, removing to Boston, he devoted himself to literary work. He is now best known for his children's books and the editorship he held of The Atlantic Monthly. He published the Bodley Books (1875-87) and was also an essayist, and produced large quantities of journalism that was printed anonymously. He was a correspondent of Hans Christian Andersen, and biographer of James Russell Lowell. He also edited The Riverside Magazine. Scudder also prepared, with Mrs. Taylor, the Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor (1884) and was series editor for the extensive American Commonwealths Series for Houghton Mifflin.