Webster wrote that his book had become the principal elementary book in the United States. In a great part of the northern States, it is the only book of the kind used: it is much used in the middle and southern States; and its annual sales indicate a large and increasing demand (183 1962: 15). The justice of his claim is shown by Mathews' estimate that The American Spelling Book had sold 50 million copies by 1865 (1931: 45), and Pyles' estimate that over 100 million copies were sold before it was replaced by other books (1952: 98). More famous than The American Spelling Book but less successful in sales was
Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1825).