“A Gross Literary Fraud Exposed; Relating to the Publication of Worcester’s Dictionary in London,” as Webster’s Dictionary

“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

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