Books

First edition of Boswell's version of their three-month trek through the highlands and islands of Scotland in late 1773. Boswell's account "has the chatty informality of a 'rough' guide: its focus is on Johnson, as it describes his charged encounters with the native population, whether humble cottagers or important personages like Lord Monboddo and Boswell's formidable father Lord Auchinleck. The tour. deepened the friendship between the pair, and increased Johnson's respect for and confidence in Boswell as a future biographer" (Pat Rogers in ODNB). Johnson had published his own account, very different in tone, in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775. The final leaf advertises Boswell's Life of Johnson as "Preparing for the Press, in one Volume Quarto" (ODNB). Provenance: contemporary ownership inscription to front free endpaper, "Tho. Brodrick"; same leaf with Japanese stamp of Shinozuka. Pottle 57; Rothschild 456; Tinker 333. Octavo (226 x 140 mm). Original boards sometime neatly rebacked, untrimmed. Housed in a custom red quarter morocco slip case and matching chemise. Boswell's wood-engraved crest to title page. Boards a little rubbed and marked, scattered foxing or spotting and occasional toning, paper flaw at fore margin of O8, old scorch mark in gutter between pp. 355-87. A very good tall copy, complete with half-title and terminal errata leaf. Leaf I5 is in the first state, with Q7 and U6 in the second, as in the Rothschild copy; the five cancels mentioned by Rothschild all present.

James Boswell's account of his 1773 journey with Samuel Johnson through the Scottish Highlands and Hebrides, offering both travel insights and personal reflections.