use his parents could not financially support him in that endeavor, he taught school to earn money and later fulfilled his dream (Shalhope 1761). Through his teaching experiences, Noah discovered he did not like American schools. All ages of children were crammed into one-room schoolhouses with no desks, an insufficient amount of books and inexperienced teachers. Because the books they used came from England and Webster believed Americans should learn from American books, he wrote his own textbook in 1783. Most people called it the "Blue-backed Speller" because of its blue cover, but its actual title was A Grammatical Institute of the English Language. Later, it was reissued under the title The American Spelling Book and in this form went through edition after edition (Baugh 360). The most popular American book of its time, Ben Franklin used taught his granddaughter to read by using Websters book. His success with the blue-backed spelling book earned him both a steady income and the means to dedicate his life to the first American dictionary. This is the premier American textbook, of which more than seventy-five million copies have been sold and which still has its devotees (White 5). In 1789, Noah Webster married Rebecca Greenleaf, who bore their eight children. The family lived in New Haven, then moved to Massachussets, where Noah helped to start Amherst College. When he was 43, Webster began writing the first American dictionary because Americans in various parts of the country spelled, pronounced and used words differently and he thought that all Americans should speak uniformly. Furthermore, he also thought that Americans should not speak and spell just like the English (King 72).Webster spent much of his late 20s and early 30s crossing the American wilderness to petition on the steps of 13 capitals for copyright protection. Through this, he learned the art of expressing the codes of justice that underline democracy. His ...
