Why Noah Webster?
Noah Webster experienced a spiritual conversion and dedicated his scholarly works to the glory of God. Webster worked on his 1828 edition of the ADEL in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 1812-1822. He was a proponent of education for women. Webster worked with Dickinson’s grandfather to establish educational institutions, including Amherst Academy and Amherst College. The last edition of the ADEL that Webster worked on before his death in 1843 was published by the Adams Brothers of Amherst in 1844. In 1844 Edward Dickinson purchased Webster’s rare final edition of the ADEL. Webster’s granddaughter Emily Elizabeth Fowler Ford was a school chum of Emily Dickinson. Emily’s brother Austin recalled seeing “Webster’s big dictionary” on the kitchen table of the Dickinson home (Sewall 1965, p. 12). Martha Dickinson Bianchi reported that her aunt Emily read the dictionary “as a priest his breviary” or book of daily devotions (1932, p.80).
