The reprint of the original dictionary (1828) may include some accolades from his contemporaries that was later published in 1840, the second dictionary of the american language. An extensive biography of the life of Noah Webster (page 22) was written by the new editor Chauncey Goodrich. In a few weeks, this biography will be available in searchable text format. If the preface of the 1840 (1856 or 1858 dictionary, depending on how you count) interests you, a large PDF scan is available (4 MB).

This Dictionary, like all others of the kind, must be left, in some degree, imperfect; for what individual is competent to trace to their source, and define in all their various applications, popular, scientific, and technical, seventy or eighty thousand words! It satisfies my mind that I have done all that my health, my talents, and my pecuniary means, would enable me to accomplish. I present it to my fellow-citizens, not with frigid indifference, but with my ardent wishes for their improvement and their happiness; and for the continued increase of the wealth, the learning of the moral and religious elevation of character, and the glory, of my country.
To that great and benevolent Being, who, during the preparation of this work, has sustained a feeble constitution, amidst obstacles and toils, disappointments, infirmities and depression, who has borne me and my manuscripts in safety across the Atlantic, and given me strength and resolution to brin the work to a close, I would present the tribute of my most grateful acknowledgements. And if the talent which he intrusted to my care, has not been put to the most profitable use in his service, I hope it has not been “kept laid up in a napkin,” and that anyy misapplication of it may be graciously forgiven.

New Haven.

NOAH WEBSTER.