Creator
Thomas Dilworth
Title
A New Guide to the English Tongue in Five Parts.
Coverage
London
Publisher
Unattested London ed.: 1793
Date
[1st ed. 1740?]
Description
This 138-page primer is the first English-language book to combine a speller, a grammar, and a reader—a formula later copied by James Buchanan (in one volume), Noah Webster (in three volumes), and Lindley Murray (also in three). Dilworth (1710–1780) listed 200 potentially confusing homophones, such as “Board, a plank, Bor’d, made a hole.” Posthumously, Dilworth was remembered for his namesake ghost who boisterously accused Noah Webster of plagiarism.