The publication of Webster's Third New International Dictionary in 1961 set off a storm of intense controversy in both the popular press and in scholarly journals due to widespread disagreements about the nature of language and the role of the dictionary. This is the first full account of the controversy, set within the larger background of how the dictionary was planned and put together by its editor-in-chief, Philip Babcock Gove. Based on original research and interviews with the people who knew and worked with Gove, this is a human story as well as the story of the making of a dictionary....

The publication of Webster's Third International Dictionary in 1961 set off a storm of controversy that was virtually unprecedented in its scope and intensity. Herbert Morton tells the story from the beginning, drawing on new sources. He describes how the third edition was planned and put together by Gove, where it went astray, and how it was misunderstood and misinterpreted by its detractors.