Books

Dublin: Thomas Ewing, 1775. First quarto edition and first complete edition printed in Ireland; 2 vols., pp. [70] plus unpaginated lexicon in double column; full contemporary calf, with a neat 20th century rebacking, new red and black morocco labels on gilt-paneled spines; prelims in volume II dampstained, a very good, sound copy of a not-so-common edition, based on the fourth London folio printed in 1773, and the only edition for which Johnson provided any additions or corrections. From his famous prose "advertisement" in vol. I: "Perfection is unattainable, but nearer and nearer approaches may be made; and finding my Dictionary about to be reprinted, I have endeavoured, by a revisal, to make it less reprehensible ... Many faults I have corrected, some superfluities I have taken away, and some deficiencies I have supplied..." Alston V, 184; Courtney 56-7; Fleeman 55.4D/5a; Kennedy 6280.

Samuel Johnson's 'A Dictionary of the English Language' is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language. First published on 15 April 1755, the dictionary offered comprehensive definitions and illustrative examples of usage.