Books

FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 208 x 125 mms., pp. [iii] - vii [viii quotation], 524 [525 Errata and Proposals for printing Boswell's life of Johnson, 526 blank], with "induced" in the note on page 121, E3, E4, and M4 in cancelled state, page 237 "Kings and subjects" on line 5-6, "nor Mrs. Thrale" on page 299, recently rebound in half calf, with earlier marbled boards, gilt rules on spine, red leather label; lacks half-title, but a very good copy. With a contemporary owner's signature, possibly "W Runddyll", on top margin of title-page. I have nothing fresh to say about Boswell's Journal. It is a very entertaining and instructive book. As is well known, Boswell had the assistance of Edmund Malone in compiling the journal. By the time Boswell got around to composing the journal, he was drinking more heavily than he had in earlier days. He recorded in a note written in 17 August 1785 that he "Drank a great deal of wine. Malone had promised me all the evening to revise. I went between six and seven, but was not very fit for the task." One of the more entertaining features of the journal is the frequent mention of eating and drinking. On 26 August 1773, Boswell and Johnson had breakfast at Cullen: "They set down dried haddocks broiled, along with our tea. I ate one; but Dr Johnson was disgusted by the sight of them, so they were removed�". Sir Walter Scott, in one of his many annotations in his copy of Boswell's Journal, came to the defence of this dish: "A protest may be entered on the part of most Scotsmen against the doctor's taste in this particular. A Finnon haddock dried over the smoke of the sea-weed, and sprinkled with salt water during the process, acquires a relish of a very peculiar and delicate flavour, inimitable on any other coast than that of Aberdeenshire." One has to be grateful to Boswell for recording this incident and also to Scott for his very Scottish defense of the dish. My sentiments accord with those of Dr. Johnson. Pottle 57; Rothschild 456; Tinker 333.

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