Books

London: Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, in the Poultry, 1793. First edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 2 vol. 4to. [3], iv-xii, [17], 2-516; [3], 2-588 [586], [4], 2-42 pp. Contemporary calf with the spines in six compartments, recent black morocco labels lettered in gilt on the spines, gilt decorations and stamping on the spines. Volume one illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Johnson (a stipple-engraving by James Heath), volume two with two plates (the "Round Robin" plate and the facsimile of Johnson's handwriting). Completing the title page: "[with a] Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition, Never Before Published. The Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great-Britain, for Near Half a Century, During which He Flourished". Grolier Club, 100 Famous Books in English Literature, 65. Oxford DNB, Gordon Turnbull "Boswell, James (1740-1795)". Pottle 79.…

James Boswell's 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' is regarded as one of the greatest biographies written in the English language. It provides an in-depth and vivid recounting of the life of Samuel Johnson, a writer and critic who was a towering figure in 18th-century British literature.