1833 NOAH WEBSTER. A Dictionary for Primary Schools. First Edition of Important Publication.

A very nicely preserved example of the first edition of Noah Webster's dictionary for the young [see Skeel, Bibliography of the Writings of Noah Webster]. This was an attempt at democratizing his larger works to make them available for young learners, but it was also advertised to the uneducated, and those who had less space on the frontier, etc., It also served Webster's efforts at the work of standardizing spelling before variants were picked up in school and much more difficult to discard later in life.

This is the very edition owned and used by a young Abraham Lincoln; his copy now in the Huntington Library. 

Rare. No examples on the market at the time of cataloguing. And no complete copies in the auction record. A more common edition is one purporting to be 1833, but by Huntington and Savage and likely pirated, perhaps later. Webster fought a never-ending battle to protect the integrity of his copyright and remove floods of pirated editions of his works.

An example of this first edition was displayed as part of Amherst College's 2009 250th Anniversary of Noah Webster's Birth Exhibition, though it too was in inferior condition to the present. 

Webster, Noah. A Dictionary for Primary Schools. New York: Published by N. & J. White, 108 Pearl Street. New Haven: Durie & Peck. Stereotyped by A. Chandler, New York. 1833. 

Good + in original full calf binding, loss to black morocco label as shown. The whole quite attractive. Blank ffep lacking, title good with some light handling and toning. Textually complete and very good. 24mo.