Noah Webster and the American Dictionary
Micklethwait, David
Noah Webster was described by the publisher of a competing dictionary as ?a vain ... plodding Yankee, who aspired to be a second Johnson??a criticism that rings mostly true. He was certainly vain and, born in Connecticut, undeniably a Yankee. Moreover, though he referred to Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language as a ?barren desart of philology, ? the American lexicographer relied heavily on the book during the creation of his own Americ...