Noah Webster's book is fascinating reading for today's students and teachers alike, as well as for the average citizen, as there is much to learn from it. While it may be inappropriate to resurrect it as an official school text, it certainly has a place in every school library. One of the most notable features is the comprehensive phonetic system used, with diacritical marks (accents) applied to all relevant vowels and consonants; words are divided according to syllables and stress. It also spells the names of letters of the alphabet; something which tends to be ignored in modern teaching. The terminology of traditional grammar is used, and there are copious word lists, with words grouped according to common factors. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to all students of the English language for the above reasons and for many other interesting aspects (now-archaisms:thy/thou...; foreign words and phrases; abbreviations explained; punctuation; etc). This book should remain a spelling classic.

What a refreshing surprise to discover that Noah Webster, the father of our dictionary, was such a devote man of God! The only down side to his story in shaping American education by biblical standards is how far we have fallen from these lofty heights. Could you imagine Mr. Webster walking into one of our modern 'Government training camps'? (called public schools!) He'd call for a second revolution! Any mention of the bible today in our schools is taboo and strictly prohibited. Most of our educators come from a humanistic background that rejects the absolute and denies that God even exists. It's no wonder the crime rate among our youth is astronomical and immorality at epidemic levels. With our churches compromised and the truth fallen in the streets, what are the young people to do but drown in this sea of iniquity. Our nation has gone from being firmly grounded in the principles of Christianity to absolute chaos. I urge every parent to learn from our forefathers, withdraw your children from these decadent schools and get them focused on the things above before it's eternally too late.
Webster may not have been a clergyman of his time, but his grasp of Scripture is above and beyond MOST preachers of our day. On the issues of saving faith, heart purity and rightness of life, he is light years ahead of our modern pulpit parrots. Today men stand in pulpits and tell people they can deny Christ & He won't deny them, that they can live like the devil and still inherit the Kingdom and even blow their brains out! Webster would call them reprobates and indeed be speaking the truth. His lessons are timeless, based on God's Word, not men's opinions. It would behoove any young person to take them to heart and ensure their entrance into the eternal kingdom.

The Webster Bible, by Noah Webster, is a refreshing find in the myriad of translations out there. Sadly, it is once again out of print. Noah was a meticulous lexicographer and loved helping others understand God's written word by carefully translating the Bible into more familiar language. This translation corrects the antiqudated terms of the King James Version with out tampering with the doctrinal purity of the Bible - as written in the original Greek and Hebrew. Noah Webster realized that our only hope of salvation from our inherent sinful condition is through Faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. A clear translation of God's written revelation to us concerning His Son is essential to us finding out all about Him. If you want a version of the Bible that you can easily understand and rely on, this is it.

Fantastic. Although I did find a mis - spelling, I believe it was due to a typo in the translation.

Noah Webster's dictionary terms are on target and provide a basis for research into other fields such as law, the Constitution of the united States of America, as well as other areas.

NOAH WEBSTER'S FIRST EDITION OF AN AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, Twelfth Printing, 2000. ISBN 0-912498-03-X

This book is a facsimile of the 1828 two-volume dictionary in one volume, which besides having its own great intrinsic interest, will also be of great interest to students of Emily Dickinson.

Noah Webster was a very learned and very devout man, and his ideas about language in his very long Introduction to this book make for interesting reading. The frontispiece gives us a marvelous portrait of Webster. He looks like a man of strong will and determination, qualities he would have needed to push his great project to a conclusion.

As for the actual entries, Christian readers will find it rewarding to compare his definitions of such words as "marriage", "education", "sin", "law", "faith", "prayer", etc., with those given in any modern dictionary. They will probably be surprised at the great differences, and may come away with a renewed respect for this great American.

Turning to Emily Dickinson, we know that she made frequent and extensive use of Noah Webster's 'Dictionary of the English Language' in writing her poems, paying attention not only to definitions but also to Webster's etymologies and his illustrative quotations.

The scholarly consensus is that she probably made use of an 1844 reprint of the 1841 edition, but since this is now rare, and since the 1828 edition was also in the Dickinson library, the present facsimile of the 1828 edition becomes an important resource for helping us to recover at least some of the senses in which she understood certain words.

The present book is a large heavy quarto volume (8.5 by 11 inches), stitched, bound in full strong cloth, well-printed on thin but good quality paper, and has clearly been designed for heavy use. Since it isn't paginated in the normal way, I'm not sure exactly how long it is, but at a guess I'd say it must be at least 1500 pages, if not 2000.

It's a great pleasure to handle such a well-produced book, and to read its definitions and ponder the great changes that have occurred in the meanings of words over the last 130 years. This is a book that should be in everyone's library, as providing a fund of wisdom, knowledge, and information that few modern books can even begin to approach.

A "must-have" for those who would understand the American Constitution and the basis for our heritage and beliefs. This book is more than a dictionary, it concisely defines the words whose meanings have "evolved" in our language. Excellent reference for Bible studies, history papers, and general better basis of explanation and reasoning for our national documents. Though it is definitely a "dictionary," I find myself pouring over its contents for clarity and meaning to much more than the words themselves.

If you're ready for a reprieve from contemporary biographical sleaze, read this fine biography of Noah Webster, a good and moral man who held his family and country in balanced respect. You have lots to learn from this book if all you know about Webster is the dictionary. What surprised me was a life that spanned the years from colonial times to the mid-19th century. This was a man who never held high elective office but was an influential friend of those who did -- Washington, Franklin, John Adams and Madison. He spent months traveling up and down the East coast, espousing his beliefs in the ideals of Federalism. He advocated tirelessly for an American language and literature independent of the British tradition. To protect himself against piracy of his highly popular reader for schoolchildren, he campaigned successfully for copywright legislation. For this reader, whose last course in American History is a blurred memory, the "times" part of this story was as fascinating as the "life." I was reminded of the chaos of the country in the interim between the Revolution and Constitutional Convention, of Shay's Rebellion, of the acrimonious regionalism that nearly tore apart the young country, of the XYZ affair, and the threat to a fragile democracy of the War of 1812. I was made to recall the inadequacies of early American education and the perils of public health before urban sanitation systems. In this carefully-researched portrait, Unger presents Webster sympathetically as an American Renaissance man, curious and informed in fields from law to medicine to philosophy to lexicography. One of Yale University's early graduates, he spent his life educating himself. Because Webster was such an assiduous diarist and letter-writer, the book also provides a rich portrait of his family and private life -- his devotion to his wife and children, his frustration with a ne'er-do-well son, his financial concerns, and his delight in hearth and home. The culmination of the story is the dictionary, the product of a lifelong belief in the necessity of a uniform American language to unify the disparate voices of a young nation. Webster the scholar devoted years of careful research to this project, both at home and in Europe. His efforts secured his mention in history books. Harlow Unger's book fleshes out the man and his times with substance and grace.

This is an outstanding biography of a person who, because he never held high political office, is less well known than he deserves to be. In reading about Webster's life, one also learns much about the political controversies of the early United States--how many know, for example, that George Washington had bitter political enemies while President, or that the War of 1812 was so unpopular in New England that it prompted many there (including Webster) to discuss seceding from the Union? This biography deserves to be widely read.

In his preface, the author notes that Noah Webster is so famous for his dictionary that it's overshadowed his many other achievements. Too true! I was amazed to learn of Mr. Webster's achievements in politics and education reform, particularly the influential role he played in shaping the U.S. Constitution. This book is a Must Read for anyone who wants a deeper and more accurate view into early American history.