Books

London: J.M. Dent & Co, 1901. First thus. Three octavo volumes extended to seven (8 7/8 x 6 inches; 222 x 152 mm.). Extra-illustrated by the insertion of over six hundred plates including many portraits and scenes by various artists, at least one original letter (complete with envelope), pages from books and periodicals contemporary to the events being related by Boswell (including The Gentleman's Magazine), notices of marriages and deaths, bookseller catalogues, auction catalogues, etc., some items with hand-written captions, many mounted onto stiff paper with decorative borders. Bound by Pfister of New York ca. 1901, in full red morocco, covers elaborately stamped in gilt, spines with five raised bands, decorative gilt inside borders, mottled pink endleaves. With the bookplate of Robert Freeman Pick. "Boswell is the first of biographers. He has no second. He has distanced all his competitors so decidedly that it is not worth while to place them" (Macauley). Indeed, drawing on…

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.