NEAT Part 2.1: Noah Webster

(Note: Yesterday was one mad day in which we visited three author homes, those of Noah Webster, Mark Twain, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, respectively. For the sake of your sanity and patience, I'll tackle one at a time! ;)

"America must be as independent in literature as she is in politics, as famous for arts as for arms."

-Noah Webster

The time has come... I have a confession to make: being a writer has not always been my dream job. There was this period of time, when I was 13 or so, when I had glorious daydreams of getting my doctorate in languages and becoming a etymologist. Many people confused this with entomologist, and wondered why I would have to study languages to be a bug scientist. (Which proves why the world needs etymologists, doesn't it?)

And you know how everyone has his or her reading weakness? Some people are murder mystery junkies, some people hide teen vampire novels under their covers...I read dictionaries. I memorize obscure, fairly useless definitions and try to work them into daily conversation. I dream about word histories.

Now that you know that, you won't be surprised to learn that visiting Noah Webster's house was on my top priority list for our New England Author Tour. What did surprise me was what a relative little I knew about the man. Besides being a fellow word nut, he was a politician, an activist, a teacher—one of the behind-the-scenes men in the American Revolution (rather than one of those burning-down-the-houses-of-Tories kind)...and so I still love him even though he thought women should never be allowed to read novels. (He would certainly think me a heathen for writng a few!)

The big thrill for me, of course, was stepping in the footsteps of the man who made spelling part of our national identity. The next best thing, though, was simply stepping back in time, to the 18th century simplicity of Webster's home. (I totally want his fireplace.) I'm getting excited about my upcoming revisions of my Revolutionary War novel...

Another highlight was seeing all the gorgeous illustrations by Monica Vachula, from the picture book by Pegi Deitz Shea: Noah Webster, Weaver of Words. I hope these pictures help you enjoy them a little—but you should probably just go get the book from your library because it is lovely and well worth reading!

In closing, I can only say this:

fare·well

Pronunciation: \fer-ˈwel\

Function: verb imperative

Date: 14th century

: get along well —used interjectionally to or by one departing

P.S. Get yourself psyched for the upcoming installments about Mark Twain's and Harriet Beecher Stowe's homes in the former artist/writer colony of Nook Farm—that's where the fun really gets started! ;)