1758-1843

Recounts Noah Webster's experiences as a confidant of many of America's founding fathers, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, and discusses his influence on American culture.

Surveys the life of Noah Webster, a reputedly vain and bad-tempered man who made a career of acquiring knowledge and public speaking, but who is best remembered for compiling and publishing the first American dictionary in 1828.

"Noah Webster is best known for writing American dictionaries. But that's not all he did." He also published America's first spelling and reading texts, wrote pamphlets against slavery, and helped establish the public education system. He had "the energy of a thousand bees, and knowledge was his nectar.".

Traces the life of the farm boy who became a teacher and went on to write the first American dictionary.