BOSWELL | The Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791

From the Library of the Earls of Haddington

BOSWELL, JAMES

The Life of Samuel Johnson. LL.D. Comprehending an Account of His Studies and Numerous Works in Chronological order; A Series of his Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of his Composition, never before Published. Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, 1791 

2 volumes, 4to, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE (volume 1, p.135, line 10 "gve" for "give"), aquatint portrait frontispiece of Johnson by J. Heath after Joshua Reynolds, volume 2 with 2 engraved plates, cancel leaves Mm4 and Nn1 in volume one, E3, Oo4, Qq3, Zz1 and Eee2 in volume 2, contemporary calf ruled in gilt, spine gilt, blue speckled edges, light browning and spotting, offsetting from bookplate, slightly rubbed

"One of Western literature's most germinal achievements: unprecedented in its time in its depth of research and its extensive use of private correspondence and recorded conversation..." (Gordon Turnbull, Oxford DNB).

LITERATURE:

ESTC T64481; Pottle 79; Rothschild 463; Tinker 338

PROVENANCE:

The Right Honourable Earl of Moray, engraved armorial bookplate; thence by descent to the Earls of Haddington

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