Mrs. Eddy Mentioned Them September 13, 1958 Issue

Joseph Emerson Worcester, 1784–1865

[Mentioned in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 68]

Joseph Worcester, an American lexicographer, was born in Bedford, New Hampshire. His father had been a teacher and had written for newspapers before the Revolutionary War. But Joseph attended school only when farm chores permitted. However, he often read until midnight.

When Worcester was twenty-one he entered Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. His determination to get an education was unshaken by his having to be in classes with young boys. Four years here prepared him to enter Yale in the sophomore class. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he was one of the four highest men in his class.

After teaching five years, Worcester returned to Andover to work on his first book, "A Geographical Dictionary or Universal Gazetteer, Ancient and Modern." He next brought out a large folio gazetteer of the United States. Its wide sale precipitated his move to Cambridge, where research facilities were greater. Other textbooks followed, and in 1829 he issued an edition of Johnson's Dictionary, with his own additions.

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