Mary E. Webster

Mary E. Webster

Studying The Federalist Papers was the last thing Mary E. Webster expected to do. As an adult, she first heard about them in 1988. And, at the time, she thought she hated history. However, she'd always enjoyed political discussions. She started watching C-SPAN in 1994, which led to a desire to know the original meaning of the provisions in the United States Constitution. She picked up The Federalist Papers. Strictly for her own information, she spent one month, using her interpreting, studying, and writing skills, rewriting Paper Number 1 until she fully understood it. She found the discussion so riveting that she began studying Number 2.

Over the years, Mary has had some unusual jobs. Several helped hone the specific skills she used to "translate" the Federalist Papers. Around 1980, she had three mystery novels published and began studying American Sign Language (ASL), which led to her entering the ASL interpreting program at St. Paul College in 1988, and graduating with honors in 1989. Interpreting was an essential skill for translating The Federalist Papers.

After a 20-year break, in 1990 Mary returned to the University of Iowa, College of Business, finishing her senior year on the dean's list. As she continued at the UI, studying for her MBA in finance, she worked as a freelance ASL interpreter and a writer for Media Research. At Media Research, she summarized the three major networks' (ABC, NBC, CBS) nightly newscasts and emailed them to Washington, D.C. before the following morning.

When she picked up The Federalist Papers in 1994, Mary had no thoughts of publishing a translation. She was already working on a fourth novel and a nonfiction book about clinical depression. But the authors' keen insight into human nature made the discussions timeless. She suspected that if the Papers were more accessible, many people would find them as fascinating as she.

After nearly five years of study, her translation, The Federalist Papers: In Modern Language, was published in 1999. She added new Paper titles and paragraph subtitles, an index referencing Paper and paragraph numbers, and a copy of the United States Constitution indexed to the Papers.

In 2008, her 10th-grade reading-level translation of the Papers, The Federalist Papers: Modern English Edition Two, was published. In 2010, The United States Constitution: Annotated with The Federalist Papers in Modern English was published, making it easy for anyone to become a Constitutional scholar.

Mary offers a unique view of the Constitution because the Federalist Papers are the only opinions of the Constitution that she has read or studied.

Studying her country's roots made Mary curious about her own roots, especially when she learned that Noah Webster probably wrote his dictionary so that people could understand the United States Constitution. Noah and Daniel Webster's 3rd great-grandfather is Mary's 8th great-grandfather (John Webster, the 5th governor of Connecticut), making them 4th cousins 5 times removed. Mary is also the 8th great-granddaughter of Dr. Samuel Fuller and 9th great-granddaughter of John Alden and Myles Standish (all signers of the Mayflower Compact).