Heading: (Johnson, Samuel)
Author: Boswell, James
Title: The Life of Samuel Johnson
Place Published: London
Publisher:Printed by Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly
Date Published: 1791
Description:

Two volumes. xii, [16], 516pp.; [ii], 588pp. [i.e. 586] pp. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Johnson by J. Heath after a painting by Joshua Reynolds, two engraved plates, one comprising facsimiles of Johnson's handwriting and the other 'Round Robin' plate also with facsimile signatures. (4to) 27x21 cm (10½x8¼") modern full speckled brown calf, red and brown morocco spine labels, edges speckled red. First Edition.

With the following first state points: Volume One: "gve" for "give" along with added space, p. 135, line 10; "upon" repeated, p.48, line 8 from bottom; "reollection" P.115, line 8 from bottom; "exhihited" p.117, line 2 from bottom; "condescente" p.275, line 2 from bottom; "Harvey" p.291, line 9 from bottom. Both cancels Mm and Nn (pp. 271-4) present. Volume Two: all mis-numbered pages: 229, 408, 497, 504, 555, 585 and 586 uncorrected; five cancelled leaves: E, pp. 29-30; Oo, pp.287-8; Qq, pp.301-2); Zz, pp.353-4; Eee, pp.395-6. Importantly, the following typographical errors in text as given by Pottle uncorrected (possible determinants for prior states): "painted" vs. later correction "printed" p.78, line 23; "MDCCLXXXIV" vs. "MDCCLXXIV" p.92, line 6; "Wlliam" p.275, line 12; "us" omitted before "enquire" p.352, line 11; "composition" wrongly referred to as "Imposition" in the errata; "mother tongue (i.e. not hyphenated) p.562, line 3 from bottom. No half-titles, as issued. The earliest possible state with all uncorrected points satisfied. Regarding Boswell's crowning achievement, Carlyle said, "questionless, the universal favour entertained for it is well merited. In worth as a Book we have rated it beyond any other product of the eighteenth century: all Johnson's own Writings, laborious and in their kind genuine above most, stand on a quite inferior level to it..." NCBEL II 1214. Pottle 79. Rothschild 463.

Binding with only very light wear; very clean within, a superb copy in a fine modern binding.