Webster's blue-backed spellers were textbooks for children that taught five generations of children in the United States how to spell and read, and made elementary education more secular and less religious. He was increasingly religious himself, and proomoted Bible study. In the U.S. his name became synonymous with "dictionary," especially the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary that was first published in 1828 as ''An American Dictionary of the English Language''. | Webster's blue-backed spellers were textbooks for children that taught five generations of children in the United States how to spell and read, and made elementary education more secular and less religious. He was increasingly religious himself, and proomoted Bible study. In the U.S. his name became synonymous with "dictionary," especially the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary that was first published in 1828 as ''An American Dictionary of the English Language''. |