Webster, Noah Autograph Letter Signed ("N Webster") to Henry Henrick, newspaper editorin Knoxville, attacking Lyman Cobb New Haven, oct. 26 1836 Webster thanks Henrick, evidently editor of a newspaper in Knoxville, for inserting Webster's "Caution" about the pirated Speller circulating in the market, then turning to the career of his arch-rival in the battle over the American Speller, Lyman Cobb. Webster pours out his feelings: "...He is an extraordinary man. His history is shortly thus. He was a poor boy in Lenox, Mass. Mr. Kamlin the printer here was in school with him. He afterwards lived with a Mr. Bosworth of Albany, as a menial, but I am told he was addicted to lying for which he was flogged. He thus ran away & the first thing Bosworth heard form him was, he had made a Spelling Book. It seems he went westward & kept school, then in Walker's Dictionary adopted his plan of spelling & pronunciation. After he published his Sp Book, he attacked MINE, marked every thing in which I differ from Walker, published a long series of papers against me, first in an Albany paper, then in a pamphlet, which he sent by mail into all quarters. When my Dictionary appeared, he again wrote against me in a New York paper, finding fault with my discrepancies of orthography, published a pamphlet which you have doubtless seen...In his book many plagiarism form my dictionary, as there are in his little reticule." As for the battle between Cobb' Speller and Webster's, according to Morgan in NOAH WEBSTER (1975), p. 190, "Although Cobb did not surrender, he had to fight a long retreat, and Webster's book ultimately won the war..." 4to. 1-1/2 pp. With integral blank, addressed and postmarked on verso. Minor soiling, remains of seal, old folds; very good. Housed in a custom morocco-backed folding case Price: USD 4,000.00 other currencies   order no. 26005    inquire

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