Annotated Copies of Early Editions of Johnson's Dictionary: A Preliminary Account

Early responses to Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language included manuscript annotations, sometimes very extensive, in copies of the dictionary. This article surveys twenty-one copies of eighteenth-century editions of the dictionary with critical or informative annotations, bearing on etymology or usage, adding new words or senses, or improving the supply and referencing of quotations. Some of these copies are extant in institutional or private collections, and others are unlocated. The annotators include Johnson himself; members of his circle including Edmund Burke, Samuel Dyer, Edmond Malone, Hester Piozzi, and George Steevens; and other readers including Leigh Hunt, Horne Tooke, Noah Webster, and John Wilkes.

Word Wars

Pitched battles have long been fought between neology advocates and those who think we have enough words already. Centuries ago language purists such as Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift railed against the many new words they thought were defiling the English language. Britons and Americans subsequently squabbled fiercely over Americanisms, the neologisms that settlers began to create soon after they arrived in the New World (e.g., foothill, skunk, eel grass). Jefferson’s coinage belittle raised particular hackles in the mother country. Jefferson – a self- proclaimed “friend to neology” – joined John Adams, Noah Webster and others in defending the coinage-rich American version of English that they thought was integral to establishing a sense of independence from the mother country. Guardians of the King’s English in Great Britain considered this attitude impudent. Protecting their national franchise and sense of ethnic privilege proved to be integral to that guardianship.

The Invention of the Modern Dictionary

Sokolowski details the revision process that shaped the development of Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), the foundation of a nearly uninterrupted chain of dictionaries over almost two centuries. He discusses the role of collaboration, lexicographical scholarship, and the commercial considerations involved in the various updates to the dictionary, as well as the ‘War of the Dictionaries’, which forced Webster’s (under the purview of the Merriams) to evolve in order to conquer the market. The revisions following Webster’s death—and the innovations that accompanied them, which include many of the elements that distinguish today’s dictionaries from their pre-1864 forebears—have kept the name of Noah Webster associated with dictionaries to this day, while subverting the very notion of individual authorship for such a significant work of intellectual labour.

‘Importunity Which Mocked All Denial’: The Amherst Charity Fund and the Foundation of Amherst College

This chapter discusses the complex history of the Amherst Charity Fund and Amherst College, located in western Massachusetts. The story of the Charity Fund, an independent fund which financed the foundation and early growth of Amherst College through designated scholarships and loans, incorporates many elements of the larger American myth. This chapter offers an alternative story based on the surviving historical record. In particular, it draws on the accounts of Noah Webster and Rufus Graves. It also cites the founding in 1815 of the Hampshire Education Society, whose aims contrast sharply with those embraced by the trustees of Amherst Academy, and how Amherst’s history was intertwined with that of Williams College. Finally, it highlights the important roles played by such men as Pastor David Parsons and Samuel F. Dickinson.