National Dictionary Day by Lois Winston
Noah Webster was born on this day in 1758. If his name sounds familiar, it’s probably because you have one of his dictionaries sitting on a bookshelf. Among his many accomplishments, Webster was an author, editor, lawyer, and political writer. Known as the “Father of American Scholarship and Education”, his Blue-Backed Speller taught generations of American school children to read and spell. If you’ve ever wondered why English words are often spelled differently in the United States than they are in Great Britain, you have Noah Webster to thank. He disliked the complexity of English spelling rules and streamlined them for American use. Thus, for example, we have “color” instead of “colour.” As an author, I owe much to Noah Webster. His dictionary sits an arm’s length from my desk, and I use it often. But Webster is also important to authors for another one of his accomplishments. He helped establish the Copyright Act of 1831, which extended copyrights from fourte...