Printed advertising circular announcing the first Merriam brothers edition of Noah Webster's famous dictionary, revised by Webster's son-in-law Chauncey A. Goodrich. Bifold sheet with single page of printed text followed by manuscript letter addressed to Eliphalet Nott, then President of Union College, dated February 18, 1848, with glue marks and Nott's handwritten docketing below the address panel.
Apparently unrecorded, this circular for first issue of the Merriam-Webster dictionary was used as a prospectus to accompany promotional copies of the dictionary that were distributed to various colleges and major political figures from the era, with their quotes of approval being used in advertisements for the dictionary. (One such advertisement in The American Whig Review includes figures ranging from Millard Fillmore and Lyman Beecher to Jefferson Davis and George M. Dallas.) The manuscript portion of the letter, signed G + C Merriam, refers directly to this effort, "what we have thus far found that literary gentlemen take pleasure in giving the influence of their names in aiding the circulation of this great American work."
An unusual and possibly unique survival documenting the publication history of the United States' most well-known dictionary, of additional interest for its relation to the history of literary marketing and distribution.
