Books

London: John Murray, 1831. Octavo (23 cm); 5 volumes. Extra-illustrated with 197 (give or take) black-and-white engravings (some folding) and 16 color stipple engravings including portraits, facsimiles, scenes, and a map. Handsomely re-cased in 20th-century tan buckram with leather labels on spines titled in gilt. Some offsetting onto text pages from opposing plates, but otherwise the text is in excellent condition. Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson is a book that names names. Johnson, during his long life, came into contact with virtually everyone in British society who left a footprint, and Boswell names them all. John Wilson Croker's edition of Boswell's great biography-offered here in its initial printing-inspired something of a fashion for collectors to gather up printed portraits of the figures named in the biography, and have them bound into their copies of Croker's Boswell opposite the pages where the figure is named or discussed. The majority of the portraits, scenes,…

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.