Boswell, JamesABAA
1935Best.-Nr. 1338948London: John Murray 1935. Hardcover. Octavo 10 vols.; VG-; contemporary three-quarter bindings of brown leather boards in marbled paper; bound by Root & Son with their stamp at verso of second free end paper; spines with raised bands gilt lettering and design in spine panels; mild shelf wear and scuffing; wear at joints; wear to spine crowns of vols. 5 and 8; upper edges gilt; marbled end papers; portrait and frontispieces offset; vol. 6 contains fold out facsimile letter; pages clean; shelved above Case 9 3/4. 1338948. Shelved Dupont Bookstore. John Murray hardcover books
1831Best.-Nr. 53394London: John Murray 1831. First Crocker edition 5 volumes 8vo each volume with engraved frontispiece plus the round-robin plate and a map of the Hebrides; contemporary half tan calf over marbled boards maroon and brown morocco labels on gilt-decorated spines; light wear to extremities upper joint of vol. 1 rubbed but firm lower corner of vol. 3 bumped a near fine copy. This edition still stands as a monument of Johnsonian scholarship; but it was badly edited and much famously condemned by Macaulay. Seeing the problem Murray hastily engaged Wright to do a make-over and republished it in 1835. Pottle 91: The publication of this remarkable edition opens an entirely new era in the history of Boswell's book. John Murray unknown books
1848Best.-Nr. 307450London: Henry G. Bohn 1848. Engraved frontispiece and title to each volume 25 engraved plates and facsimiles. 10 vols. 12mo. Near contemporary half calf maroon morocco spine labels. Slight rubbing to extremities an attractive set. Engraved frontispiece and title to each volume 25 engraved plates and facsimiles. 10 vols. 12mo. Henry G. Bohn unknown books
1831Best.-Nr. 8638London. John Murray. 1831. Very handsomely bound by Riviere and Sons in 3/4 gilt ruled crushed morocco and linen covered boards. Gilt ruled spine compartments with elaborate gilt tooled motifs. Gilt tooled raised bands. Marbled endsheets. t.e.g. 8vo. 5.5" x 8.5". A New Edition with numerous additions and notes by John Wilson Croaker. Illustrated with an engraved Frontis to each volume. This is the last Library Edition of Croaker's Boswell. Spines evenly attractively sunned. A Very Fine pristine set in a stupendous binding. John Murray. hardcover books
1835Best.-Nr. 24973London: John Murray 1835. First edition thus. Three quarter calf over marbled boards raised bands six gilt decorated compartmentswith red morocco title label and black morocco volume label top edge gilt marbled endpapers sewn-in red silk bookmark. Spines a bit darkened extremities rubbed some scuffing to spines volume labels chipped one nearly gone one title label heavily chipped bindings tight leaves crisp and clean overall still a very good set but for the chipped labels. Illus. with engraved 12 frontispieces and 12 extra title page vignettes drawn by C. Stanfield and engraved by E. Finden. 12mo. Originally to be 8 volumes changed to 10 with addition of new material and thus new title pages were issued. John Murray hardcover books
1831Best.-Nr. 5972London: 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 facsimiles and maps in this copy date from the first quarter of the 19th century while a few were printed in the late 1700s and the most recent ones date from the 1840s. Celebrity portraits include those of Johnson Boswell Hester Lynch Piozzi Richardson Rousseau Sterne Catherine the Great Leibnitz Byron Swift Joseph Banks Voltaire Madame de Sévigné Captain Cook Thomas Gray John Donne Adam Smith Walter Scott Joseph Addison Thomas Brown Montaigne Drake Milton and many many many others. John Murray hardcover books
1858Best.-Nr. 69702New York: Derby & Jackson 1858. New Edition with Numerous Additions and Notes. Leather Bound. 468; 479; 452; 452pp. Duodecimo 19 cm 3/4 leather with marbled paper over boards gilt tooled spines and red leather spine labels. Marbled text block edges and endpapers. Light rubbing to the board edges and a bit more to the boards themselves. Underlying boards just starting to peek through at a few of the corners. Contemporary owner's name in pen on the front flyleaves. Stitching very occasionally visible in the inside margins. Books very sturdy. A handsome set of this famous biography. Derby & Jackson unknown books
1983Best.-Nr. 102185Franklin Center:: Franklin Library. Near Fine. 1983. Hardcover. Complete in three volumes. Edited by R. W. Chapman. Revised by J. D. Fleeman. Limited edition. Octavos fully bound in dark blue leather with gilt lettering and design raised bands along spines all edges gilt silk moire endpapers sewn-in ribbon bookmarks. All volumes are about fine. . Franklin Library, hardcover books
1888Best.-Nr. 25409London: Swan Sonnenschein Lowrey & Co 1888. 3 vols. 8vo frontispiece portrait facsimile of the 1791 title-p.; very good bright set in orig. blue cloth lettered in gilt on spines t.e.g. See Pottle 95: "This edition represents the first scholarly reaction against the tradition of the 'edited' Boswell . Fitzgerald maintained that . Boswell's work should not be regarded as miscellaneous encyclopaedia of Johnsoniana but as an artistic whole. Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co unknown books
1884Best.-Nr. 187757London: George Bell and Sons 1884. Hardcover. Good. Later printing. New editions with notes and appendices by Alexander Napier. 467pp. Illustrated. Gift inscription dated 1924 on front fly neat owner stamp on a few pages including title page early pages with tidelines upper hinge cracked spine ends chipped joints cracked good only. Volume four only of a five-volume set. George Bell and Sons hardcover books
1892Best.-Nr. 408359London: George Bell & Sons 1892. Hardcover. Very Good. Napier edition. 413pp. Volume one only. Extremities worn darkened spine very good. George Bell & Sons hardcover books
1892Best.-Nr. 222995London: George Bell & Sons 1892. Hardcover. Very Good. Napier edition. 422pp. Volume V only. Spine darkened extremities chipped very good. George Bell & Sons hardcover books
1892Best.-Nr. 262458London: George Bell & Sons 1892. Hardcover. Very Good. Napier edition. 496pp. Volume Four only. Darkened spine worn extremities very good. George Bell & Sons hardcover books
1892Best.-Nr. 230169London: George Bell & Sons 1892. Hardcover. Very Good. Napier edition. 480pp. Volume III only. Spine darkened extremities worn very good. George Bell & Sons hardcover books
1884Best.-Nr. 6164London: George Bell and Sons 1884. Very Good. London: George Bell and Sons 1884. First Edition Thus. Octavo; Vol I lv 583pp; Vol II xi 570pp; Vol III xi 568pp; Vol IV xv 469pp; Vol V xiii 432pp. Fifty-three engravings of portraits dwellings locales manuscripts and signatures dispersed throughout the five volumes; two-color fold-out map in Vol IV. Appendices in every volume. Index to the Life and the Tour in Vol IV; index to the Johnsoniana in Vol V. Teal boards with cloth spines in ivory; gilt spine lettering. Text block top edge roughly trimmed other edges untrimmed. All panels lightly soiled without prominent stains. Back panel of Vol V has residue of shelf-adjacent paper volume on upper third. All spines sun-baked to the point of brittleness with some resulting vertical segments missing and chipping/tearing to spine crowns and feet. Spine lettering unaffected for the most part; now protected in mylar. All joints and hinges good. Text blocks unmarred and unmarked with many unopened pages; light foxing throughout. Map of Hebrides route in Vol IV complete without misfolds. All engravings and tissue guards present. The major 19th-century "one stop shop" edition for Boswell's Johnson and for the Johnsoniana collected from the Doctor's direct intimates. George Bell and Sons unknown books
1963Best.-Nr. 270308New York: Heritage Press 1963. Hardcover. Near Fine. Later Printing. Volume three only of three. Quarto. 473pp. One inch tear across top edge of spine near fine housed in a very good papercovered slipcase with modest edgewear. Heritage Press hardcover books
1793Best.-Nr. 4478London: Printed by Henry Baldwin 1793. First Edition Thus Second Revised and Augmented Edition. Hardcover. Very Good Textblock Near Fine. No DJ as Issued. First Edition Thus Second Revised and Augmented Edition. Hardcover. Engraved portrait frontispiece after the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds by J. Baker. Includes the fold-out 'Round Robin' plate Vol. II and a fold-out plate containing facsimiles of Dr. Johnson's handwriting Vol. III. The last edition published in Boswell's lifetime it contains additional material including "Additions to Dr. Johnson's Life Recollected and Received after the Second Edition was Printed" pp. i-xxii; "A Chronological Catalogue of the Prose Works of Samuel Johnson LL.D" noted as the first attempt at a Johnson bibliography pp. xxiii-xxxi; and "Corrections" pp. xxxiii-xxxvi but not the leaf of Additional Corrections c3 in Volume I which has been tipped into some copies. It is worth noting that this tipped in leave may constitute a later issue of the edition. "The text of the second edition. deserves a close study. Although we believe that the third represents the form in which Boswell would ultimately have arranged the supplementary material we can never be sure of it for this edition was the last actually published in his lifetime. There were also many pleasant and characteristic sentences introduced in this edition which naturally dropped out when the text was shaken together by Malone" Pottle 81; see also Rothschild 468. Overall a very handsome set seldom found in as close to original state as is found here. Light shelf/edge wear even toning to spines and text block edges professionally rebacked circa mid-19th cent. minor sporadic foxing at preliminaries discrete owner notations at endpages else tight bright and unmarred. Full brown leather boards original sheep boards carefully matched to a calf spines burgundy leather labels gilt lettering and decorative elements frontispiece. 8vo. xviii xxxvii 603pp; 634pp; 711pp. Illus. b/w plates. Printed by Henry Baldwin hardcover books
1791Best.-Nr. 15878London: Henry Baldwin For Charles Dilly 1791. First edition Second State. Leather bound. Near fine. 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. Henry Baldwin, For Charles Dilly unknown books
1867Best.-Nr. 14192London: George Routledge and Sons 1867. New Edition. Full leather. Near fine. The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. by James Boswell in a decorative binding. Octavo xvi 526pp. Full blue morocco with gilt borders and trim. Title in gilt on red morocco label with five raised bands. Marbled edges with matching marbled endpapers. Fold-out frontispiece with facsimile signatures. Bookplate on second free endpaper. Solid text block some sunning to spine thin line of sunning to rear cover otherwise fine. A bright example. The Life of Samuel Johnson is considered a landmark in the genre of biography. Boswell the author became close with the subject when Johnson was 54 years old. Boswell took his own notes to cover the subject's later years and relied on Johnsons personal journals for anything earlier. George Routledge and Sons unknown books
1791Best.-Nr. 307361London: Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly 1791. First Edition first state of S4r with "gve" for "give. Engraved portrait by J. Heath after Joshua Reynolds 2 other engraved plates in Volume II. xii 16 516; 2 588 i.e. 586 pp. 2 vols. 4to. Bound in contemporary brown mottled calf rebacked with original red and green labels on spine laid down. Bookplate of John Mountenay Lely 1839-1907 and Robert McKinlay. In open-faced blue cloth slipcsae. First Edition first state of S4r with "gve" for "give". Engraved portrait by J. Heath after Joshua Reynolds 2 other engraved plates in Volume II. xii 16 516; 2 588 i.e. 586 pp. 2 vols. 4to. Pottle 79; Rothschild 463; Grolier English 65 Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly unknown books
1807Best.-Nr. 1503106Andrews 1807. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Published by William Andrews and Lemuel Blake Greenough and Stebbins Printers Boston 1807. First American in Boards Uncut. From the fifth London edition. 3 vols. 8vo First American from the fifth London Edition 1807 edited by Edmund Malone. The First edition was published in 1791. All three volumes very good in contemporary or original boards. Andrews hardcover books
1807Best.-Nr. 37183Boston: Published by William Andrews and Lemuel Blake Greenough and Stebbins Printers 1807. First American from the fifth London Edition 1807 edited by Edmund Malone. The First edition was published in 1791. Engraved portrait frontispiece by D. Edwin in first volume. Pp. 500; 512; 543. Two folding facsimile leaves vol. 2 following p. 342vol 3 following p.472. 3 vols. 8vo. Original cream paper-backed blue and cream marbled boards orange printed label ornamental decorations on spine uncut. First volume dampstained throughout some holes in title which is spotted some foxing binding of first volume damaged and lacking spine portion of spine with label laid in covers loosened volumes two and three with some rubbing of bindings and short tears of spines insect holes along bands some light spotting but generally the last two volumes very good with contemporary signature of John McVickar on endpapers. First American from the fifth London Edition 1807 edited by Edmund Malone. The First edition was published in 1791. Engraved portrait frontispiece by D. Edwin in first volume. Pp. 500; 512; 543. Two folding facsimile leaves vol. 2 following p. 342vol 3 following p.472. 3 vols. 8vo. John McVickar is rest recalled as an economist. He was one of the earliest teachers of political economy in the U. S. taught while he was Professor of Moral Philosophy at Columbia which he held from 1817 until 1857. In 1857 when Columbia brought in Francis Leiber to teach political economy McVickar was transferred to the Chair of Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion a position he held until his retirement in 1864. From 1844 until 1864 he was also Army Chaplain at Fort Columbus in New York. He is also recalled as one of the founders of St. Stephen's College for Episcopal clergyman. He was the author of several works including the revised and greatly extended "Britannica" article by McCulloch "Outline of Political Economy "1825 "Hints on Banking"1827; and several others on finance and banking and a biography of Henry Hobart. Published by W[illiam] Andrews and L[emuel] Blake, Greenough and Stebbins, Printers unknown books
1952Best.-Nr. 2324975New York: The Modern Library 1952. Reprint. Hard Cover. Good/Good. 8x5x2. 1954-63 printing Toledano 282.1 binding/jacket style 10i with unnumbered list of titles on verso grey Rockwell Kent endpapers. Hinges just beginning to weaken jacket price clipped jacket edges rubbed with a couple small closed tears and associated creases on rear panel. 1952 Hard Cover. xv 1 559 1 pp. Bergen Evans's abridgment of Boswell's famous biographical work about Samuel Johnson which helped shape the style of biographies published thereafter. The Modern Library hardcover books
1901Best.-Nr. 9023265London: J. M. Dent & Sons 1901. Hardcover. Near fine. Bound in half leather and cloth covered boards gilt ruled covers. Four raised bands on the spines. Spines are sunned stamped in gilt. Top edges gilt. Rubbed at the edges and extremities. Frontispieces and illustrations throughout. J. M. Dent & Sons hardcover books
1993Best.-Nr. 195374London England: The Folio Society 1993. Hardcover. VG/VG light wear smudges to cloth. spine ends crinkled; top has light white rub. slipcase has scuffs scratches; light bumping to corners. light & dark brown cloth boards w/ maroon & gilt printed spine plate. two volumes various paginations w/ select illustrations. top edge red. brown paper slipcase w/ gilt printing. Remains a sharp bright set; appears to be a lightly and handled. The Folio Society hardcover books
