Creator
John Sherman
Title
The Philosophy of Language Illustrated: An Entirely New System of Grammar, Wholly Divested of Scholastic Rubbish [etc.].
Coverage
Trenton Falls, N.Y.
Publisher
Dauby & Maynard
Date
1826
Description
The grandson of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Sherman (1772–1828) wrote the most inflamed English grammar in history. The subtitle of the book, one reviewer wrote, “has a fearfully belligerent aspect and hurls defiance into the teeth of the enemy.” A cultish Unitarian minister who had been expelled from the church, Sherman claimed to “deserve well of his country” for liberating grammar “from the incumbrance of long received errours.” He aimed his book not at “that stupid bigoted class of prejudiced men” but at the “truly learned.”