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    The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture
    Unavailable
    The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture
    Unavailable
    The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture

    Written by Joshua Kendall

    Narrated by Arthur Morey

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    America's own The Professor and the Madman: the story of Noah Webster, author of the first dictionary of American English-and a forgotten leader during a turning point in our nation's history.

    Noah Webster's name is now synonymous with the dictionary he created, but although there is much more to his story than that singular achievement, his rightful place in American history has been forgotten over time. Webster hobnobbed with various Founding Fathers and was a young confidant of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, among others. He started New York City's first daily newspaper, predating Alexander Hamilton's New York Post. His "blue- backed speller" for schoolchildren, his first literary effort, sold millions of copies and influenced early copyright law. He helped found Amherst College and served as a state representative for both Connecticut and Massachusetts. But perhaps most important, Webster was an ardent supporter of a unified, definitively American culture, distinct from the British, at a time when the United States of America were anything but unified-and his dictionary of American English is a testament to that.

    In The Forgotten Founding Father, Joshua Kendall, author of The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus, gives us a well-researched and absorbing look into the life of Webster, another man driven by his obsessions and compulsions to compile and organize words. The result is a treat for word lovers and history buffs alike.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 14, 2011
    ISBN9781101459690
    Unavailable
    The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture

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    Reviews for The Forgotten Founding Father

    3.5/5

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    • 2/5
      I've read little about Noah Webster. He was a native of Connecticut. He significantly impacted how Americans thought about themselves post Revolution and encouraged the adoption of the constitution over the original confederation which granted much less power to the centralized government. He considered Franklin and metor and Washington an admirer. He ran a news magazine/newspaper for several years with the first daily newspaper in New York. He was one of the most prolifican authors of his time. He was loathed by Jeffersonian Repulicans who called him many hard names and felt he was to pro-French and diagreed with his political views.

      He moved bact to New Haven CT to write his dictionary for which he probably best remembered. Massive and thorough it took almost two decades for him to compile. However, in his lifetime his most popular achievement was probably his blue backed speller that was widely used as the spelling book for five generations of Americans. He lobbied for and was able to get states to pass copywrite laws that protected his ability to gain royalties for his speller and eventually was able to see copywrite law passed on a federal level.

      I'm not sure this was the best book on the subject. The author talks about Webster's motivations and attitudes in such way I wonder where he gets his info from and he doesn't cite his sources very well. The author doesn't seem to be much of a fan of Webster and it shows.



      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I have been plodding along with the book, wanting to finish it but not being drawn in to it. I find him interesting, but at the same time boring. And for someone so broke he certainly travelled a lot. I guess this book just didn't live up to my expectations. The author's voice was difficult to follow. Occasionally there were leaps that I couldn't make and the sentence structure was bewildering. And I find it unforgiving that a nonfiction author does not cite sources. I wish it had been different.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      While I wouldn't refer to Noah Webster as a "Founding Father," he certainly deserves a large amount of credit for creating the American identity. For even during and after the Revolution, Americans still maintained their English mind-set. Understandably, it can be very difficult for people, having suffered under the status quo for so long, to suddenly of think of themselves as a unique culture. But that's where Noah Webster stepped in. He advocated, at the constant expense of his profession, his family, his livelihood and his mind, that Americans be proud of the new nation and have faith in the new government. But Webster passed through many doors, and had some slam in his face, before he finally found the time and passion to write his American Dictionary. A dream that for years was on his mind, but always found little support. Webster was an extremely self-conscious man, and therefore appeared vain and over-confident to most. Yes, despite his achievements, he seems to be the only man who could anger both the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. But while the reader may not like him as a person, you cannot doubt his sincere concern for his nation and its people. Today, the word Webster is synonymous with "dictionary" yet most Americans have no idea of the pain, toil and tears that went into the making of that masterpiece. Kendall, while I would not peg him as Webster's "best" biographer, nevertheless does Webster justice in bringing him back into the spotlight. Thanks to Kendall, I hope to find and read more of Webster's works.