The+American+Spelling+Book

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//[[image:Publication.jpg caption="Publication" link="Publication"]]The American Spelling Book//, by Noah Webster (1800s)
Noah Webster (1758-1843) was the man of words in early 19th-century America. Compiler of a dictionary which has become the standard for American English, he also compiled //The American Spelling Book//, which was the basic textbook for young readers in early 19th-century America. Before publication of this book in 1783, many schools used Thomas Dilworth's A //New Guide to the English Tongue//. (Samuel Goodrich learned to read from Dilworth; he thought Webster's book was better.) Webster's book, with its polysyllabic words broken into individual syllables and its precepts and fables, became the favorite. Revised several times by Webster, as the "blue-back speller" it taught generations of Americans how to read and how to spell. (Several books will be of interest to researchers: //Defining Noah Webster: Mind and Morals in the Early Republic//, by K. Alan Snyder, is a thorough discussion of the social values Webster espoused in his works; A Common Heritage: Noah Webster's //Blue-Back Speller//, by E. Jennifer Monaghan, is an informative look at the Speller, its history, and Webster; //A Bibliography of the Writings of Noah Webster//, compiled by Emily Ellsworth Ford Skeel and Edwin H. Carpenter, Jr., is invaluable for identifying copies of the Speller and of Webster's other works.)