The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

London: Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, 1791.

A towering accomplishment in biography, rare in this original state.

(Item #5615) The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. James Boswell.

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

London: Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, 1791. First edition. 2 volumes, quarto (293 x 229 mm) untrimmed, in the original boards. Rebacked with white parchment to style (likely mid 20th century). Protected by a deluxe pull-off case by Sangorski and Sutcliffe in full brown morocco. Small morocco bookplates (Herschel V. Jones) to front paste-down of each volume with corresponding offsetting to adjacent leaves. Bookplates of Claud Russell.

First state with Vol 1 page 135 in uncorrected state. Canceled leaves Mm4 and Nn1 in Vol 1 and E3, Oo4, Qq3, Zz1 and Eee2 in Vol 2 as called for by Pottle. Complete with aquatint portrait frontispiece engraved by James Heath after Sir Joshua Reynolds, and 2 engraved facsimile plates by H. Shepherd, just lacking the blank leaf at the beginning of Vol 2. Small stain to the front board of Vol 1, small loss of paper to the front board of Vol 2. Internal contents generally in excellent condition, pages retaining their blue tint. An exceptional copy.

"Boswell is the first of biographers. He has no second. He has distanced all his competitors so decidedly that it is not worth while to place them" (Macauley). Indeed, drawing on his close and longstanding collaboration with Johnson as well as Johnson's own diary, James Boswell released a book that was a popular success and helped to establish the modern genre of biography. Still considered an important resource on the life and times of the famed memoirist and dictionary compiler, Boswell's Life of Johnson breathes vivid life into one of the most important British figures of the century. "We know of him not as he was known to men of his generation, but as he was known to men whose fathers he might have been...and long after his works may be forgotten, he will be remembered through Boswell's Life" (Macauley).

Pottle 79; Rothschild 463-465; Grolier English Literature 65.
(Item #5615)

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The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
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The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
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