HSPLS site
Login
My List - 0
Help
Search
My Account
Databases
HI Newspaper
eBooks/Audiobooks
Learning
PC Reservation
Reading Program
Basic
Advanced
Power
History
Search:
Title Browse
Author Browse
Subject Browse
Best Seller Browse
Music Title Browse
Video/DVD Title Browse
Journal/Newspaper Title Browse
Serial Title Browse
Series Browse (includes Bestseller List)
General Keyword
Title Keyword
Author Keyword
Subject Keyword
Name Keyword
Series Keyword
Score Title Browse
Talking Book Title Browse
Awards Note Browse
Bib No.
Barcode
Refine Search
> You're searching:
HAWAII STATE PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM
Item Information
Holdings
Summary
More Content
More by this author
Martin, Peter, 1940- author.
Subjects
Webster, Noah, 1758-1843.
Worcester, Joseph E. (Joseph Emerson), 1784-1865.
G. & C. Merriam Company.
English language -- United States -- Lexicography -- History.
Encyclopedias and dictionaries -- History and criticism.
Browse Catalog
by author:
Martin, Peter, 1940- author.
by title:
The dictionary wars ...
MARC Display
The dictionary wars : the American fight over the English language / Peter Martin.
by
Martin, Peter, 1940- author.
Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2019]
Subjects
Webster, Noah, 1758-1843.
Worcester, Joseph E. (Joseph Emerson), 1784-1865.
G. & C. Merriam Company.
English language -- United States -- Lexicography -- History.
Encyclopedias and dictionaries -- History and criticism.
ISBN:
9780691210179 (paperback : alk. paper) :
0691210179 (paperback : alk. paper)
Description:
x, 358 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Contents:
Part one. Noah Webster's battles. British mockery and American disdain ; Noah Webster: "The wildest innovator" ; Webster's first dictionary ; Displacing Delilah ; The lexicographer's fifth column ; Tea and copyright: Goodrich takes over ; Spelling wars: the rise of Lyman Cobb ; The "common thief" ; Webster's decline -- Part two. The Merriams at war. Taking Webster out of Webster: from family feuds to the Merriam Brothers ; Waiting for Worcester ; The Bohn affair ; Converse's complaint ; Children, money, and "trash" ; High stakes: "Have we a national standard of language?" ; The "terrible rival": Worcesterian resurgence ; The Merriams triumphant: "Worcester! Worcester! all change for Webster!" -- Conclusion -- Appendix A: The "Webster" brand -- Appendix B: Four centuries of selected dictionaries of the English language -- Appendix C: Publishing terms -- Appendix D: "The spelling bee at Angels (reported by Truthful James)," / by Bret Harte.
Requests:
0
Summary:
"A compelling history of the national conflicts that resulted from efforts to produce the first definitive American dictionary of English. ... [English professor] Peter Martin 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. The overwhelming questions in the dictionary wars involved which and whose English was truly American and whether a dictionary of English should attempt to be American at all, independent from Britain. Martin tells the human story of the intense rivalry between America's first lexicographers, Noah Webster and Joseph Emerson Worcester, who fought over who could best represent the soul and identity of American culture. Webster believed an American dictionary, like the American language, ought to be informed by the nation's republican principles, but Worcester thought that such language reforms were reckless and went too far. Their conflict continued beyond Webster's death, when the ambitious Merriam brothers acquired publishing rights to Webster's American Dictionary and launched their own language wars. From the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the Civil War, 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 the personal stories and national debates that arose from the conflicts surrounding America's first dictionaries, The Dictionary Wars examines the linguistic struggles that underpinned the founding and growth of a nation." --
Copy/Holding information
Location
Collection
Call No.
Status
Hawaii State Library
Language, Literature & History
423.09 Ma
Checked In
Add Copy to MyList
Hilo Public Library
Adult Nonfiction
423.09 Martin
Checked In
Add Copy to MyList
Honokaa Public Library
Adult Nonfiction
423.09 Ma
Checked In
Add Copy to MyList
Horizon Information Portal 3.25_9884
© 2001-2013
SirsiDynix
All rights reserved.