Description
The first edition, second state of The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. by James Boswell, printed in London in 1791.
Quarto, [two volumes], vii, [1], 516pp; xii, [16pp Table of Contents], 588pp. Full period calf, title in gilt on spine over red morocco labels. Both spines laid down over new calf, text block resewn. Modern brown endpapers in Volume II. Complete with frontispiece portrait of Johnson by James Heath, after Joshua Reynolds, and two engraved plates (“Round Robin” and “Facsimiles”) by H. Shepherd. No half-titles as issued. Free of notable foxing, solid text blocks.
This work is the first edition, second state, with the following points in Volume I: “give” rather than “gve” on page 135, line 10; “upon” repeated on page 48, line 8 up from bottom; “exhihited” page 117, line 2 from bottom; “condescente” page 175, line 2 up from bottom; “Harvey” page 291, line 9 from bottom. Volume II: mis-numbered pages include 229, 408, 497, 504, 555, 585, and 586; uncorrected points, which were changed in later states include “painted for “printed,” page 78, line 23; “MDCCLXXXIV” vs. “MDCCLXXIV,” page 92, line 6. (Pottle 79) (Rothschild 463)
A beautiful example of Boswell’s monumental work.
