An American Dictionary of the English Language

CENSUS CONFIRMED that donors far more often hold later Merriam revisions. The chain: Webster issued a second edition in 1841 with his son William G. Webster, whose title page does not claim second-edition status but describes itself as the 'first edition in octavo' — the format change from the 1828 quarto to octavo is the quickest tell. After Webster's death on 28 May 1843, George and Charles Merriam bought the unsold stock, unbound sheets, electrotype plates and publishing rights to the 1841 edition from Webster's heirs, and issued their revised and enlarged edition on 24 September 1847, edited by Professor Chauncey A. Goodrich of Yale, Webster's son-in-law. Any copy bearing a Merriam or G. & C. Merriam imprint, or dated 1847 or later, is a revision and not the 1828 first, however imposing the binding. Facsimiles of the 1828 edition have also been reprinted in modern times and are marked as such.