Noah Webster, educator, lexicographer, lawyer, political essayist, and scholar, best remembered for his "Blue-Backed Speller" (A Grammatical Institute, of the English Language, part 1, 1783) and An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), devoted his life to educating the young American Republic in hopes of forming its national character. Called "Schoolmaster to America," he wrote the textbooks that directed the early course of American education and helped conserve for the country a common language free of class distinctions. Webster's speller, with its fables, morals, and patriotic sentiments, traveled wherever Americans traveled; an estimated 80 million copies had been sold by 1890. Countless children in every state of the union for many generations were taught to spell Webster's way, to pronounce Webster's way, and perhaps even to think Webster's way. And Webster thought nationally. An early advocate of a strong federal government, he was the first to promote and defend the development of...