A man who loved words, Noah Webster (1758–1843) — the father of the American dictionary — was born today on a farm in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Dissatisfied with British-made textbooks, he set out to create his own. Believing language opens doors to freedom, he said he had “too much pride to stand indebted to Great Britain for books to teach our children.”

With abiding passion, he worked for more than 27 years to shape a distinctly American English. In 1828 he published the American Dictionary of the English Language, defining 70,000 words, helping standardize pronunciation, and nurturing the emerging culture of a new nation.

“America must be as independent in literature as she is in politics,” he believed. “As famous for arts as for arms.”

Like Benjamin Franklin, Webster was a wide-ranging thinker. A patriot with strong Christian convictions, he opposed slavery and championed the first American copyright laws. As an active Federalist, he wrote pamphlets celebrating George Washington’s administration.

He also taught that language is living — close to the ground, grown from everyday work and love. In that spirit, his life honored the simple, steady power of words to lift people and knit a nation.