Bingham, Caleb

Bingham, Caleb

(bĭng`əm), 1757–1817, American textbook writer, b. Salisbury, Conn. He taught until 1796, then became a bookseller and publisher in Boston. He wrote and published some of the earliest grammars, spelling books, and geographies. He was best known for his readers The American Preceptor (1794) and The Columbian Orator (1797), both widely used in New England schools for the next quarter century.