Books

10 volume set. Bound with maroon leather spines and corners. Red cloth over boards. Raised cords on the spines. Lettering in gold, with volume numbers, date, and 'extra illustrated.' Top edges gilt. Varying page counts - between 320 and 425. A pencil notation inside the front cover of volume 1 says there are 140 additional plates. These plates are usually portraits of people mentioned in the biography, taken from earlier sources and carefully sized and inserted here to supplement the original material. Each of these additional plates has the binder's code on the back, identifying which volume and which page it should be inserted at. Some folding facsimiles pages as well. Bindings good and right and quite attractive. Some slight wear to the hinges, but this hardly detracts. Also, a small chip at the extended top of the crown of the spines on 3 volumes prevent it from being flawless, but these chips are so small as only to be visible when you look down on the books from above. Each volume measures 4.5 x 6.75 inches. The whole set sits on 12 inches of shelf space. Please email to request photos or with questions. Extra shipping will be required to ship the 10 vol set safely.

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.