We resort to many expedients in order to maintain the arbitrary character of English spelling. We ask that our children be drilled endlessly in school, we do homage to “the dictionary” as an arbiter of linguistic matters, and we cast a supercilious smile that cuts deep upon anyone who deviates from conventional orthography. Also among these mechanisms for maintaining our spelling is the spelling bee, and the tracing of its development—from its background in schools, through its flowering as a rural entertainment in New England and later as the principal literary exercise on the frontier, to its revival on the radio—forms a necessary chapter in American linguistic history.