The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight over the English Language

The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight over the English Language

by Peter Martin
The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight over the English Language

The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight over the English Language

by Peter Martin

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Overview

A compelling history of the national conflicts that resulted from efforts to produce the first definitive American dictionary of English

The Dictionary Wars recounts the patriotic fervor in the early American republic to produce a definitive national dictionary that would rival Samuel Johnson’s 1755 Dictionary of the English Language. But what began as a cultural war of independence from Britain devolved into a battle among lexicographers, authors, scholars, and publishers, all vying for dictionary supremacy and shattering forever the dream of a unified American language. Peter Martin tells of the intense rivalry between America’s first lexicographers, Noah Webster and Joseph Emerson Worcester, and how their conflict continued beyond Webster’s death, when the ambitious Merriam brothers acquired publishing rights to Webster’s American Dictionary. The dictionary wars also engaged America’s colleges, libraries, newspapers, religious groups, and state legislatures at a pivotal historical moment that coincided with rising literacy and the print revolution. Delving into personal stories and national debates, The Dictionary Wars examines the linguistic struggles that underpinned the founding and growth of a nation.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691210179
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 09/08/2020
Pages: 376
Sales rank: 521,811
Product dimensions: 5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Peter Martin is the author of numerous books, including the acclaimed biographies Samuel Johnson and A Life of James Boswell.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Riveting. . . . The author navigates a complex story, bringing to life the passions and ideologies that shaped the early American lexicon."New Yorker

"Martin’s account of the dictionary feuds of the 19th century is as lively and entertaining as the battle itself."—Patricia T. O’Conner, New York Times

"Wonderfully told. . . . For a tale of lexicographic intrigue, Mr. Martin’s book is unexcelled."—Bryan A. Garner, Wall Street Journal

"The particular strength of Peter Martin’s [book] is his exhaustive excavation of the letters and newspaper polemics of the time. The result . . . gives us the gunpowder-whiff of the dictionary battles."—Michael Skapinker, Financial Times

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