2011 Maze

About our Subject:

Noah Webster authored the first dictionary of American English in 1806. He did so because he objected to American school children being taught from British textbooks.  Though  a nutmegger (Connecticut native), he lived in Amherst from 1812-1822 and helped found Amherst College in 1821. His first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, was published in 1806 and included words of American origin, words that the British would not acknowledge or include in their dictionaries. In order to publish his second, more comprehensive dictionary published in 1828, Noah learned 26 languages to help evaluate the etymologies of the entries. It took him 21 years to complete. According to Wikipedia, a complete modern bibliography of Webster’s published writings would require 655 pages. The G.C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Ma became the publisher of Webster’s dictionaries in 1840 and became Merriam-Webster in 1983.

In past mazes the trails would outline the subject’s features.  but this year the bust of Noah, our subject,  is rendered in corn as a stupendous halftone image using the corn stalks like a 10 foot tall dots of green ink on a sepia toned field of Hadley loam.

The Game:

Noah’s portrait emerges from a checker board matrix of letters (‘checkers’ is a word and game of American origin and though its not part of our maze field, it is one of Webster’s original 1806 entries). The letters, and the grid that connects them, are this year’s game. So the maze field itself IS the game.  24 original American words that Noah included in his first dictionary are spelled out by our letters carved in corn. Like a classic wordsearch game, the words are spelled horizontally, vertically, and diagonally and often in reverse. Find the words and then visit the letters to win your produce prize. We will also have a second early American English word game distributed through the trail-less wilderness of Noah Webster’s graphic visage. It’s a perfect year to take your brain for a walk at Mike’s Maze! Special thanks to Merriam-Webster and Lynn Stowe Tomb for providing the reference material needed to create our 1806 American word game.