Scarce First English Edition of Webster's A Dictionary of the English Language

Noah Webster. A DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: Intended to Exhibit I. The Origin and the Affinities of Every English Word... II. The Orthography and the Pronunciation of Words... III. Accurate and Discriminating Definitions of Technical and Scientific Terms... 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, Philosophical and Practical, of the English Language... Reprinted by E. H. Barker, Esq.... From a Copy Communicated by the Author, and Containing many Manuscript Corrections and Additions. (2) volumes (complete). London: Black, Young, and Young, foreign booksellers to the King, 1832. First English edition. Diced leather boards, gilt-lettered spines with raised bands, and all edges stained. 4to; viii, [i]-civ, lexicon A-I printed in three columns (unpaginated), one leaf of publisher's advertisements; [ii], lexicon J-Z printed in three columns (unpaginated). Vol. II lacking final leaf of publisher's ads called for by Skeel (although present in Vol. I), otherwise collates as complete. Skeel 589a.

Each 10 5/8 x 9 in.

Per Skeel's A Bibliography of the Writings of Noah Webster, "The first English edition of the American Dictionary, which was reworked by the English editor, E. H. Barker, and was not merely a reprinting, appeared in twelve parts, beginning in 1830, and was published in a complete work in 1832" (p. 240).

Damp staining and wear to boards, including some spine and joint cracking and a loss to the tail of the vol. I backstrip; interiors with ownership label on paste-downs, hinge-cracking, occasional light foxing, damp staining to edges and vol. I margins, and general minor handling wear; a couple of small repairs including to vol. I title page; vol. I with a couple of small areas of insect damage, and final ad leaf extended and with wear to one corner. Good volumes, and quite scarce.