Contents inroduction chapter I. American english as a variant of english

2.3 Webster as the creator of the American version of the English language 
Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut on October 16, 1758. 
Noah was the fourth child in a family of five children. As a child the boy 
displayed exceptional talents. Noah spent his childhood on the small family 
farm. But unlike his brothers, he did not farm at all, but sat under a tree and read 
a book. 
His father, Noah Webster, sacrificed much to give his son the best education 
possible. In 1774, his parents, having raised as much money as they could, sent 
fifteen-year-old Noah to Yale College. During the outbreak of the Revolution, 
Noah's studies were interrupted. He volunteered for military service under his 
father's command. After the war was over, Noah returned to college and 
graduated in 1778. He hoped to continue his education and study law, but since 
Noah's father could no longer help him, the young man took a job as a 
schoolteacher in Hartford and in Sharon, Connecticut. Nevertheless, Webster 
continued to read and study law extensively. Soon Noah was allowed to practice 
law in court and in 1781 received a Master of Arts degree. 
Disappointed with English textbooks suitable for teaching children, 
Webster decided to create his own. He said: "I am too proud to be indebted to 
Britain for books for the education of children." While still a teacher, Noah 
resented the American elementary schools: one schoolroom crowded about 
seventy children of different ages, the teachers were unqualified, the desks were 
missing, and the textbooks were sent from England. Webster believed that 
Americans should be educated with American textbooks. So, he began writing a 
three-volume handbook, A Grammatical Institute of the English language. The 
publication consisted of spelling (published in 1783) spelling (published in 
1784) and a textbook (published in 1785). The dictionary was a great success 
and has not lost its importance to this day. Noah's goal was to provide children 
with a uniquely American approach to learning. 

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Webster expressed dissatisfaction that the English language was being 
corrupted by the British aristocracy, which had established its own version of 
spelling and pronunciation. Noah rejected the view that the study of Greek and 
Latin should trump the study of English grammar. Since then, Webster's dream, 
task, and mission has been to create a large explanatory dictionary of the 
American language. 
His first attempt was a school dictionary explaining and spelling the most 
common words of American English. It came in the cheapest edition, the paper 
disgusting and the back cover a board covered in blue cloth. The little book 
with its tiny typeface contained 37,000 vocabulary items, including thousands 
of words that were in American use but had not previously made it into any 
dictionary that existed. The success was unexpected and stunning. Parents, 
teachers, priests, printers, and foreigners snapped up the dictionary. All the 
notes and quotations in his dictionary were chosen exclusively from American 
writers, politicians, and speeches by Washington and Franklin. This dictionary 
has been refined ever since. 
From his experience as a teacher, Webster understood that a dictionary 
should be simple and give the correct interpretation of words and their correct 
spelling and pronunciation. Webster noticed that students understand more 
easily if he breaks one problem down into its component parts. They parse one