AN AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLAND LANGUAGE; FIRST EDITION IN OCTAVO, Containing the Whole Vocabulary of the Quarto, with Corrections, Improvements and Several Thousand Additional Words: To which is Prefixed an Introductory Dissertation on the Origin, History and Connection of the Languages of Western Asia and Europe, with an Explanation of the Principles on which Languages are Formed

New Haven, CT: Published by the author, 1841. First Octavo Edition. Hardcover. Light, scattered foxing; stain at bottom margin of first volume not affecting text. Covers rubbed with some loss of leather and staining to first volume; binding tight and firm. Very Good. Two royal octavo (7" x 10-1/2") volumes in contemporary calf leather with gilt-lettered black morocco spine labels, marbled edges and endpapers. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait. Webster's groundbreaking dictionary was originally published in New York in 1828 in a slightly larger format. Laid in is the Preface to the Revised Edition of 1847.

PRINTING AND THE MIND OF MAN (truncated) 291: "Webster was an ardent nationalist and he wanted to stress the political separation from Britain by the cultivation of a separate American language. Under the influence of his friend Benjamin Franklin he turned his attention to 'a reformed mode of spelling,' and although he rejected the radical phonetic innovations proposed by Franklin, he went far enough to give many printed American words a distinctive appearance." (Inventory #: 021534)