Webster, Noah. An American Dictionary of the English Language... To Which are Prefixed, an Introductory Dissertation on the Origin, History and Connection of the Languages of Western Asia and of Europe, and a Concise Grammar of the English Language. S. Converse, New York, 1828. First Edition. 2 volumes. 4to. Unpaginated. Text in tripe column. Frontispiece portrait engraved in copper by A.B. Durand from the painting by Samuel F.B. Morse. Modern leather, red leather spine labels. Page ends washed yellow. The first edition of "the most ambitious publication ever undertaken, up to that time, upon American soil..." - Grolier, American 100, 36; "Webster was an ardent nationalist and he wanted to stress the political separation from Britain by the cultivation of a separate American language. Under the influence of his friend Benjamin Franklin he turned his attention to 'a reformed mode of spelling'; and although he rejected the radical phonetic innovations proposed by Franklin, he went far enough to give many printed American words a distinctive appearance" - Printing and the Mind of Man 291. Sabin 102335. With the engraved frontispiece which is often lacking.

Sunning to spines. Dampstaining to boards and lower page markings. Scattered foxing.