Lexical Warfare
Joseph Worcester was hired to abridge Webster’s dictionary—Webster hated the result—and then went on to write his own dictionary, leading Webster to accuse him of plagiarism.
So began “the dictionary war,” a feud that lasted three decades and forced American literati to declare allegiance to one camp or the other. Only in the 1860s, when the Merriam Company overhauled Webster’s dictionaries to excise Noah Webster’s eccentricities, did the Merriam-Webster brand gain decisive ascendancy.
THREE-YEAR WORLD RECORD
Joseph Worcester, ed. Johnson’s English Dictionary . . . with Walker’s Pronouncing Dictionary, combined. Boston: Charles Ewer & T. Harrington Carter, 1828.
———. An American Dictionary of the English Language . . . By Noah Webster, LL.D. Joseph Worcester ed. New York: Sherman Converse, 1829.
———. A Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Collins & Hannay; Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little & Wilkins, 1830.
Three years—1828 to 1830—saw the most prolific output ever by a lexicographer: Joseph E. Worcester. First came his abridgment of Johnson’s Dictionary. Converse then approached him to abridge Webster’s masterwork. Worcester declined, but when Converse brandished $80,000 (in today’s money), he quickly abridged Webster, correcting palpable errors. Then he returned to his own dictionary, acknowledging there what he had learned from Webster. But Webster cried plagiarism. Amplified accusations would plague Worcester for the rest of his days.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 63
A VEXATIOUS DOCUMENT
Copyright certificate for Worcester’s abridgment of Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language. Filed with the federal district clerk of Massachusetts—jointly in the names of Noah Webster and Joseph E. Worcester—on 29 September 1829.
This is Webster’s own copy of an infuriating document: a copyright jointly held with his nemesis, Worcester. The handwriting is Chauncey Goodrich’s. Not that he was a schemer, but Goodrich soon procured from Worcester a written disclaimer of any interest in the book. Then he obtained an assignment of copyright from Webster, who wanted to distance himself from the book. Because Goodrich got rich from it, an upset Webster disinherited Goodrich and his wife.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD pp. 209–10
PERSEVERING MALEVOLENCE?
Lyman Cobb. Cobb’s Abridgment of J. Walker’s Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, and Expositor of the English Language. Ithaca, NY: Mack & Andrus, 1828.
———. A Critical Review of the Orthography of Dr. Webster’s Series of Books for Systematick Instruction in the English Language. New York: Collins & Hannay, 1831.
The feisty Lyman Cobb became fixated on Webster’s many flip-flops in spelling—caused in part by Worcester’s influence in the 1829 abridgment, which contradicted Webster. Cobb’s marginal strictures in his copy of the 1828 Webster resulted in this pamphlet, which accuses Webster of “multitudinous errours, contradictions, and inconsistencies.” Insisting that the public should consider only his own latest book, not earlier ones, the beleaguered Webster asserted that Cobb had a “persevering malevolence rarely exhibited even in this world of evil.”
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 64
WEBSTER SHOOTS BACK
[Noah Webster.] Inconsistencies in the Orthography and Orthoepy of Cobb’s New Spelling Book. Ca. 1842.
Broadside (24 × 17.5 inches).
Given that Cobb minutely examined Webster’s books for inconsistencies, Webster, in the last year of his life, decided that turnabout was fair play. He issued this scarce broadside to demonstrate the many inconsistencies in Cobb’s own works. For example, Cobb’s New Spelling Book specified provable and stupefy, while Cobb’s Walker specified proveable and stupify (to which Webster adds two exclamation marks). Note the big manicules at top, reminiscent of the very earliest item in this exhibition.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner.
FISHING FOR NEW TERMS
Noah Webster. Letter to Abel Chandler, printer, of Concord, Massachusetts, inquiring about technical terminology. Nov. 1834.
ALS.
In 1832, Abel Chandler received a patent on his stereotyped printing blocks. A year later, he printed Webster’s Primary School Dictionary. This letter illustrates a lexicographer’s attempt to enlist an ally. Lexicographers habitually call on acquaintances to help collect out-of-the-way words—teenagers for the newest slang, specialists for technical terms. Did Webster know that at the time of this letter, Chandler was also working for Lyman Cobb? Webster was at work on the next item . . .
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 221
GOING FOR BROKE
Noah Webster. An American Dictionary of the English Language; first edition in octavo. 2 vols. New Haven: Printed by B.L. Hamlen for the author, 1841.
Webster horrified his family by mortgaging his house to self-publish this book. All his ventures had proved disastrous, and this one was no different. Webster printed 3,000 copies; when he died, 1,420 lay in unbound sheets.
Webster tried promotions. This copy was sent to President William Henry Harrison for his Inaugural: “Presented to President Harrison, March 4 1841, with the authors [sic] respects.” Harrison had little time to consult it: 30 days later, he died of pneumonia.
Courtesy of the Harlan Crow Library. HHD no. 70
MONETIZE THE SURNAME
John Quincy Adams. Letter to William G. Webster supporting the purchase of Noah Webster’s synopsis of his Dictionary for the Library of Congress, Sept. 1843.
ALS.
After his father’s death in May 1843, William G. Webster worked to ensure his father’s legacy and his own. Recently bankrupted, William struggled to find a footing. His name began appearing on the title pages of Webster “pocket editions.” There was money in the name Webster, which William alone bore. The enterprising son considered another source of income: he could sell to the Library of Congress his father’s never-published “synopsis.” Despite the former President’s enthusiastic response here, nothing came of the proposal.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 72
SPELLING SPLITS A FAMILY
Chauncey A. Goodrich. Undated lists of spellings to be approved by William Chauncey Fowler (both sons-in-law of Noah Webster). Ca. 1845.
In the mid-1840s, Goodrich sent Fowler lists of spellings in the hope of reaching a consensus. Backed by the Merriams, Goodrich knew all about Lyman Cobb’s criticisms of Webster’s inconsistencies. The envious Fowler sought word-by-word votes of the whole family, which was torn asunder by spelling disputes.
This correspondence is about more than family turmoil: it’s a watershed in settling how words should be spelled in America. In the end, Goodrich prevailed and Fowler was squelched.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 73
SORT OF PUBLISHED
William C. Fowler. Printed, but Not Published. Privately printed, ca. 1849.
The irreparable rift in the Webster clan came when Fowler attacked Chauncey Goodrich: “These pages are not intended for the public, but for the family of Dr. Webster, and such others as Mr. Goodrich has conversed with.” Fowler assaults Goodrich’s motives in making “unauthorized” changes to Webster dictionaries. This copy, from Fowler’s own archive, was once torn completely in half—perhaps by Fowler himself. Purchased from Fowler’s archive, it appears to have been taped back together by a Fowler descendant.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 73
ALL IS FAIR?
Spine of “Webster Worcester’s Dictionary,” published in London by Henry G. Bohn.
“A Gross Literary Fraud Exposed; Relating to the Publication of Worcester’s Dictionary in London,” as Webster’s Dictionary. Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1854.
William D. Swan. A Critic Criticized: And Worcester Vindicated. Boston: Swan Brewer & Tileston, 1860.
The 1850s were a crucial decade in the dictionary wars. An unscrupulous British publisher inflamed the situation: Henry G. Bohn acquired the British rights to Worcester’s 1846 Universal and Critical Dictionary, where the preface explained that Worcester hadn’t used Webster’s work. Nevertheless, Bohn reworked the title to say that the dictionary was Compiled from the Materials of Noah Webster. On the spine he put “Webster Worcester’s English Dictionary.” That instigated eight years of indignant pamphleteering between the Merriams and Worcester’s American publisher.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 77
SHOOTING STAR—BRIGHTER AS IT VANISHES
Joseph Worcester. A Dictionary of the English Language. Boston: Hickling, Swan & Brewer, 1860.
G.E. Perine & Co., engraver. Portrait of Joseph E. Worcester. Ca. 1860. Framed with clipped signature of Worcester dated 22 May 1860.
The preface to Worcester’s big dictionary, 30 years in the making, magnanimously praised both Noah Webster and Chauncey Goodrich. Perhaps it was doomed from the beginning: Worcester had been fending off accusations of literary wrongdoing for years. However unjust the charges were, he couldn’t shake them.
Meanwhile, this careful dictionary—the best that had ever appeared on the American market—merely spurred the Merriam team (much of the Yale faculty) to redouble its efforts.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 79
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Charles Dickens. Letter to Messrs. Sampson Lowe & Co. with Dickens’s wax seal intact. 3 August 1860.
ALS.
Sounding as if he might have requested a copy, the great novelist thanked the British booksellers Sampson Lowe & Co. for “promptly forwarding Dr. Worcester’s Dictionary.” He assured them that he would write to Worcester himself.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 79
MENTAL ACUTENESS PERSONIFIED
Portrait of Noah Porter of Yale College. Ca. 1864.
Noah Porter, a Yale philosopher, was asked by Goodrich to take over Webster dictionaries. Porter initially declined, but the Merriams assured him that the job would require only a few hours a week. What fitted him for the work? According to George Merriam, it was his “fund of general information, his intelligence as to the sources of knowledge, his wise judgment of the fitness of men for various branches of the work, his mental acuteness trained by metaphysics and serviceable for the niceties of language, [and] his swiftness in decision.”
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 80
CUTTING WEBSTER FROM WEBSTER
Chauncey A. Goodrich & Noah Porter, eds. An American Dictionary of the English Language. Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1864. Printing of 1866.
This dictionary, called “Webster-Mahn,” was in its day the best ever produced. (Worcester’s book held that title for only four years!) The definitions were rigorous, and the fanciful etymologies were at last retrenched. Noah Porter engaged Professor C.A.F. Mahn of Berlin to rewrite the etymologies from scratch. It was a decisive move by Merriam to triumph over Worcester, who had only one more year to live. With this book, the Webster line came to vanquish the Worcester line.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 80