Autograph Letter Signed, "N Webster jun[ior]," to bookseller Daniel Steele of Albany, NY requesting payment for the sale of a Dictionary by Webster, Noah - 1812

New Haven, Ct, 1812. 1 p. pen and ink with integral address leaf and docketing. 4to. Old folds. 1 p. pen and ink with integral address leaf and docketing. 4to. I received from you last summer ... 15 dol'rs on ... the Dictionaries. Reading in part: "I received from you last summer by your brother, 15 dol'rs on acct. of the Dictionaries. I understand you sent some of them - I believe 50 - to Mr. Seward of Utica. If so, you retain, if I recollect right, 150 copies - or 250. I wish for a settlement - if the books are sold - you deducting expenses & your commission. At any rate I wish for an amount of sales - & any balance in your hands. I sold the books at 42 cents - 42 dollars the hundred - at the time of publication. [A]s I have waited so long, if any profit has accrued, I ought to receive it. I have drawn an order by Mr. Platt ...." Webster most likely refers to his Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, printed in 1806 in an edition of 7,000 copies and priced $1.50. It was Webster's first dictionary and its publication marked a turning point in Webster's life, as he would devote the next twenty plus years to working on his historic American Dictionary (1828). If Webster's efforts to collect his profits don't come across here as urgent, it is likely because his Speller, Grammar, and Reader had long since been mainstays in American classrooms, and earned for him a comfortable living. Daniel Steele was among the earliest booksellers in Albany and "kept the largest and best assortment of books outside of New York City" (Howell and Tenney, Bi-centennial History of Albany, p. 650).