Creator
William Chauncey Fowler
Title
English Grammar: The English Language in Its Elements and Forms.
Coverage
N.Y.
Publisher
Harper & Bros.
Date
1850
Description
This gargantuan book, labeled a “10th edition” even in its earliest printings, was Brown’s attempt at a "complete grammar of the English language." He disclaimed vainglory but embraced invective, referring freely to the “scandalous errors and defects which abound in all our common grammars.” His competitors were “miserably defective, and worthy of censure.” Hence Brown produced this “condensed mass of special criticism, such as is not elsewhere to be found in any language.” One recent scholar called it “a beacon that led to no port, an anachronism that was obsolete before it was finished.”