Spelling reform

Here are entered works dealing with the effort to reform English orthography. Works on orthography, spelling, and spelling reform in languages in general are entered under Language and Languages -- Orthography and spelling. Works dealing with orthography, spelling, and spelling reform in specific languages or groups of languages are entered under the name of the language with subdivision Orthography and spelling, e.g. French language -- Orthography and spelling.

See also what's at Wikipedia, your library, or elsewhere.

• English language -- Orthography and spelling
• English language

• English language -- Spelling reform
• Orthography
• Simplified spelling

• English Spelling and Spelling Reform (New York and London: Harper and Bros., 1909), by Thomas R. Lounsbury (multiple formats at archive.org)

Items below (if any) are from related and broader terms.

• English Spelling and Spelling Reform (New York and London: Harper and Bros., 1909), by Thomas R. Lounsbury (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Spell Well, by Marion Field (HTML with commentary at HowTo)

• The American Spelling Book, Containing an Easy Standard of Pronunciation, Being the First Part of a Grammatical Institute of the English Language, To Which is Added an Appendix Containing a Moral Catechism, and a Federal Catechism (Wilmington: Bonsal and Niles, ca. 1802), by Noah Webster (HTML and page images at merrycoz.org)
• McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling-Book, Revised Edition (New York et al: John Wiley and Sons, c1879; with transcriber commentary), contrib. by William Holmes McGuffey (Gutenberg text and other formats)
• The School Reader: First Book (New York: Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co., c1858), by Charles W. Sanders (page images at Pitt)
• A Spelling Book (new and enlarged edition; New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1907), by Georgia Alexander
  • multiple formats at Google; US access only
  • multiple formats at archive.org

• A Plea for The Queen's English: Stray Notes on Speaking and Spelling (10th thousand; London: Strahan; Cambridge: Deighton, Bell and Co., 1866), by Henry Alford (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Queen's English: A Manual of Idiom and Usage (third edition; London: Strahan and Co.; Cambridge: Deighton, Bell and Co., 1870), by Henry Alford (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Queen's English: A Manual of Idiom and Usage (seventh edition; London: G. Bell and Sons, 1888), by Henry Alford (multiple formats at archive.org)
• The Queen's English: Stray Notes on Speaking and Spelling (London: Strahan and Co.; Cambridge: Deighton, Bell and Co., 1864), by Henry Alford (multiple formats at archive.org)

• The American Language: A Preliminary Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1919), by H. L. Mencken (multiple formats at archive.org)

• First Book in Composition, Applying the Principles of Grammar to the Art of Composing: Also, Giving Full Directions for Punctuation; Especially Designed for the Use of Southern Schools (Raleigh: Branson, Farrar & Co., 1863), by Levi Branson (HTML and TEI at UNC)
• How to Write Clearly: Rules and Exercises on English Composition (author's copyright edition; Boston: Robert Bros., 1883), by Edwin A. Abbott (Gutenberg text)
• Primer and Language Lessons in English and Cree, by E. B. Glass, trans. by John McDougall (multiple formats at archive.org)

• An American Dictionary of the English Language (2 volumes; New York: S. Converse, 1828), by Noah Webster
  • Volume I (introductory material, and A-I): multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume I (J-Z, addition, and corrections): multiple formats at archive.org
• The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (fourth edition) (HTML at Yahoo)
• The Century Dictionary (12 volumes, including 1910 supplements), ed. by William Dwight Whitney (frame-dependent DjVU and JPEGs at global-language.com)
• A Complete Dictionary of the English Language, Both With Regard to Sound and Meaning: One Main Object of Which is, To Establish a Plain and Permanent Standard of Pronunciation; To Which is Prefixed a Prosodial Grammar (fourth edition, 2 volumes; London: Printed for Charles Dilly et al., 1797), by Thomas Sheridan
  • Volume I: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume II: multiple formats at archive.org
• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (seventh impression of first edition; Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1919), ed. by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler (multiple formats at archive.org)
• A Dictionary of the English Language (sixth edition, two volumes; London: Printed for J. F. And C. Rivington, et al., 1785), by Samuel Johnson
  • Volume I: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume II: multiple formats at archive.org
• A Dictionary of the English Language, Explanatory, Pronouncing, Etymological, and Synonymous, With a Copious Appendix (Springfield, MA: G. C. Merriam and Co., 1872), by Noah Webster, Chauncey A. Goodrich, Noah Porter, and William A. Wheeler (page images at MOA)
• Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (current edition, with additional material) (searchable HTML at m-w.com)
• Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (based on the 1913 Merriam-Webster edition)
  • searchable HTML at Chicago
  • A-B: HUGE Gutenberg text
  • C: HUGE Gutenberg text
  • D-E: HUGE Gutenberg text
  • F-H: HUGE Gutenberg text
  • I-L: HUGE Gutenberg text
  • M-O: HUGE Gutenberg text
  • P-Q: HUGE Gutenberg text
  • R: HUGE Gutenberg text
  • S: HUGE Gutenberg text
  • T-W: HUGE Gutenberg text
  • X-Z: Gutenberg text (zipped only)

• A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue (second edition; London: Printed for B. Tooke, 1712), by Jonathan Swift
  • multiple formats at Google
  • HTML with commentary at Rutgers
• A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue, by Jonathan Swift (HTML at Rutgers)
• Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to the Earl of Oxford, about the English Tongue, by Mr. Oldmixon (HTML at Virginia)

• The Dean's English: A Criticism on the Dean of Canterbury's Essays on the Queen's English (10th edition; London: Hatchards, 1876), by G. Washington Moon (multiple formats at archive.org)
• English As She Is Wrote: Showing Curious Ways in Which the English Language May be Made to Convey Ideas or Obsure Them (New York: D. Appleton and Co., c1883) (page images at Google; US access only)
• Slips of Speech (1901 edition), by John H. Bechtel (Gutenberg text)
• Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults, by Ambrose Bierce (Gutenberg text)

• On the Study of Words, by Richard Chenevix Trench (Gutenberg text)

• English Next: Why Global English May Mean the End of "English as a Foreign Language" (c2006), by David Graddol (PDF with commentary at britishcouncil.org)
• The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century (c2000), by David Graddol (PDF at britishcouncil.org)

• A Few Practical Suggestions (Society for Pure English Tract #3; 1920), by Logan Pearsall Smith (Gutenberg text and page images)

• The Teacher's Word Book (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1921), by Edward L. Thorndike (multiple formats at archive.org)

• First Book in Composition, Applying the Principles of Grammar to the Art of Composing: Also, Giving Full Directions for Punctuation; Especially Designed for the Use of Southern Schools (Raleigh: Branson, Farrar & Co., 1863), by Levi Branson (HTML and TEI at UNC)
• Higher Lessons in English: A Work on English Grammar and Composition (revised edition, 1896), by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (Gutenberg text)
• A Practical Grammar: In Which Words, Phrases, and Sentences Are Classified According to Their Offices, and Their Various Relations to One Another Illustrated by a Complete System of Diagrams (revised edition; New York: A. S. Barnes and Co.; et al., 1863), by S. W. Clark (multiple formats at Google)

• English Next: Why Global English May Mean the End of "English as a Foreign Language" (c2006), by David Graddol (PDF with commentary at britishcouncil.org)
• The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century (c2000), by David Graddol (PDF at britishcouncil.org)

• English As She Is Wrote: Showing Curious Ways in Which the English Language May be Made to Convey Ideas or Obsure Them (New York: D. Appleton and Co., c1883) (page images at Google; US access only)

• A Few Practical Suggestions (Society for Pure English Tract #3; 1920), by Logan Pearsall Smith (Gutenberg text and page images)

• An Apology for the Study of Northern Antiquities (1956 reprint with commentary), by Elizabeth Elstob, contrib. by Charles Peake (Gutenbgerg text)

• The Voice: How to Use It; With Exercises for Tone and Articulation (revised edition; Boston: Expression Co., c1938), by Sarah T. Barrows and Anne E. Pierce (page images at HathiTrust)

• Politics and the English Language (1946; book form 1947), by George Orwell (text in Australia; NO US ACCESS)

• A Few Practical Suggestions (Society for Pure English Tract #3; 1920), by Logan Pearsall Smith (Gutenberg text and page images)

• The Linguistics of Punctuation, by Geoffrey Nunberg (PDF at Stanford)

• A+ Research and Writing for High School and College Students, by Kathryn L. Schwartz (HTML at IPL)
• The Elements of Style (1918 edition), by William Strunk (HTML at Bartleby)
• How to Speak and Write Correctly, by Joseph Devlin, ed. by Theodore Waters (Gutenberg text)
• Invention in Rhetoric and Composition (2004), by Janice M. Lauer (PDF files with commentary at Colorado State)
• On the Art of Writing: Lectures Delivered in the University of Cambridge, 1913-1914, by Arthur Quiller-Couch (HTML at Bartleby)
• Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing (open-ended textbook series, begun in 2010) (full serial archives)

More items available under broader and related terms at left.