A Gross Literary Fraud Exposed: With Three Appendixes; Including the Answer of S. Converse to an Attack on Him by G. & C. Merriam

A Gross Literary Fraud Exposed: With Three Appendixes; Including The Answer Of S. Converse To An Attack On Him By G. & C. Merriam by Joseph Emerson Worcester is a 19th-century polemical defense in which Worcester recounts and defends his role in the publication of Webster's Dictionary abridgments and the subsequent London edition controversy. The pamphlet assembles correspondence, including three appendices, documenting Worcester's conflicts with the Merriam publishing firm and with Sherman Converse. It outlines Worcester's insistence that he did not act as Webster's agent, the circumstances under which he abridged Webster's Dictionary, and his defense against accusations of plagiarism and misrepresentation. The text details letters from Converse and Goodrich, along with replies and a published exchange with the Merriams. It provides context on lexicography practices in the 19th century, the politics of publishing dictionaries, and issues of orthography and attribution. The work situates itself as a defense against what Worcester saw as a "gross literary fraud" disseminated in Boston and London.