The Forgotten Founding Father

Joshua Kendall’s biography reframes Noah Webster as more than “the dictionary guy”. Instead, the author portrays him as a nation-builder who believed America needed its own language to become its own culture. Webster moved in the orbit of early American leaders, launched influential publishing efforts, and became famous through his “blue-backed speller,” a schoolbook that reached millions and helped shape early American education (and even debates around authorship and copyright).

At the center of the story is Webster’s long campaign to standardize American English, culminating in his landmark 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language. Kendall uses Webster’s life (ambition, contradictions, and relentless drive) to show how cultural identity can be forged through something as practical (and as political) as words.