This story of the farm boy who worked his way through Yale and lived through one of the most exciting periods of American history to write the first American dictionary is in its own way as thrilling as that of any frontiersman hero.

A Connecticut Yankee whose relatives were among the earliest settlers, the author of Webster's Spelling Book and the first Americans Dictionary was passionately patriotic. But where others gave the new country laws and government, he provided schoolbooks glowing with the American spirit. Twenty-five million copies of Webster's Spelling Book went out to the little red schoolhouses throughout the land during his lifetime.

The American Dictionary, which he sat down to write when he was fifty, was, of course, Webster's greatest achievement. This book took more than twenty years to write. It was completely American in spelling and pronunciation, and gave first recognition to homespun words like "whittle" and "tackle", "shaver" and "chore."

Aside from his crowning achievement, Webster was an advanced thinker on all the questions and issues of his day and was practically as many-sided as Benjamin Franklin.

His influence has been unique and enormous and young people will find his life absorbing reading.

From the book