Books

Dublin: Thomas Ewing, 1775. First quarto edition and first complete edition printed in Ireland; 2 volumes, pp. [70] plus unpaginated lexicon in double column; [2] plus unpaginated lexicon; full contemporary reversed calf, red and brown morocco labels on spines; extremities rubbed and worn, front joint starting on volume I, rear joint cracked on volume II, but all in all a good, sound copy. Includes the subscribers' list of some 290 names taking 397 sets which gives an indication as to how many were printed. Engraved bookplate of C. Chichester. An important edition, based on the fourth folio printed in 1773, the only edition for which Johnson provided any substantial 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…

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.