AN AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Two Volumes); (With "DICTIONARY" on the spine, misspelled!) by Webster, Noah - 1828

New York: S. Converse, 1828. FIRST EDITION. Leather-bound. Very Good Plus. ONE OF 2500 PRINTEDIronically (and iconically) with the word "DICTIONARY" on Volume I spine label misspelled as "DICTIOARY" (!) 4to. 278 x 212 mm. Spine labels are probably original, as the period black and red style and serif font choice indicate. This is most likely a garden variety, (yet hugely ironic!) binder's error.Scarce first edition of what was then (if not now!) arguably, THE most authoritative, referenced, cited dictionary in America. Engraved frontis Vol. I portrait of Noah Webster, by A. Durand, after S.F.B. Morse. Volume II, Additions and Corrections leaf bound-in at rear. Initially published in an edition of only 2500, this is the very first full & comprehensive American dictionary. Some minimal, and solely functional restoration work (front board reattached) by a conservator. It is presumed that an end purchaser will want to have a "deeper" and more cosmetic and archival repair performed. Book shows some leather flaking to bottom edge. Full calf, double-ruled in gilt, with contrasting spine labels, one black (Volume #, one red (Title), each bordered with gilt chained motif. FIRST EDITION of the dictionary "which almost at once became, and has remained, the standard English dictionary in the United States" (PMM) and has also been described as the "most ambitious publication ever undertaken, up to that time, upon American soil" (Grolier). This dictionary offered a more extensive lexicon than any previous dictionary ("Webster's great dictionary, all 70,000 entries of which he wrote with his own hand... marked a definite advance in modern lexicography, as it included many non-literary terms and paid great attention to the language actually spoken... Webster succeeded in breaking the fetters imposed upon American English by Dr. Johnson, to the ultimate benefit of the living languages of both countries.")" Grolier American 36; PMM 291; Sabin 102335. A solid copy of a scarce and seminal American work, with the added "distinction" of an error in spelling to the spine label, rather incredible, given the book that it is!