Books

London: Printed By Henry Baldwin, For Charles Dilly, 1791., 1791. 2 Volumes. 4to. pp. xii, [16]contents & errata, 516; 1 p.l., 588 [ie. 586]. engraved frontis. portrait of Johnson by J.Heath after a painting by Joshua Reynolds. 2 engraved plates (facsimiles of Johnson's handwriting & a 'Round Robin' with facsimiles of signatures). contemporary sprinkled calf, rebacked, corners renewed (some light scattered foxing throughout - frontis. more heavily affected, lower blank corner of final leaf defective). First Edition of the most celebrated biography in English literature, with S4r, Vol. I, in the corrected state, reading in line 10 'give' rather than 'gve'; with all the cancels (2 in Vol. I & 5 in Vol. II) and misprints listed by Pottle. Grolier, One Hundred Books Famous In English Literature, 65. NCBEL II 1214. Pottle 79. Rothschild 463 (1st Issue).. F.

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.