"The pronouncing dictionary has not only come, but is treated with a deference to which, at the outset, it was an utter stranger. It seems as if its production must have been due in the first instance to the desire for a work of such a nature manifested by the imperfectly educated middle class, rising more and more into social prominence. The members of this body wanted somebody to tell them precisely what to say and how to say it. They did not care to exercise the right of private judgment, or, rather, they did not have sufficient faith in their own cultivation to trust it. Authority was what they were after; and when men are longing for authority on any subject, some one will be considerate enough of their welfare, and confident enough in his own sufficiency, to come forward and furnish it."
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Academics from the United StatesLiterary criticsNon-fiction authors from the United StatesHistorians from the United StatesBiographers from the United States
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Thomas Lounsbury
(January 1, 1838 – April 9, 1915) was an American literary historian, literary critic, author of several books, and professor of English language and literature at Yale University. He is noteworthy for his 1882 biography of James Fenimore Cooper and his 3-volume ‘’Studies in Chaucer’’ (Harper & Brothers, 1892).
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