Description

“THAT DIALOGUE OF MIND, HEART AND VOICE”: EXCEEDINGLY RARE INSCRIBED PRESENTATION FIRST ISSUE OF BOSWELL’S LIFE OF JOHNSON, WITH SCARCE SUPPLEMENT

BOSWELL, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Comprehending an Account of His Studies and Numerous Works… Two volumes. WITH: The Principal Corrections and Additions to the First Edition of Mr. Boswell’s Life of Dr. Johnson. London: Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, 1791, 1793. Three volumes. Quarto, contemporary three-quarter calf and marbled boards neatly rebacked, red and black morocco spine labels. Housed in custom cloth chemises and a custom half morocco slipcase. 

First edition, first issue, of the greatest of literary biographies, in contemporary marbled boards. This copy a very rare presentation copy, warmly inscribed by Boswell: “To the Earl of Kelly, from his lordship’s faithful, humble servant, the Authour.” Also with the scarce separately issued Supplement.

Boswell’s biography of Dr. Johnson was first published in an edition of only 1700 copies. “Everyone with an interest in Johnson is very much in debt to Boswell not only for the years of devotion he invested in the study of Johnson’s life, but for the uncanny skill with which he conveyed the quality of Johnson’s personality and his effect on the people about him. If there had been no Boswell, Johnson would have been one of the most famous names in English literature; but that he has become a household name… is due to the chance that brought Boswell into his company… Boswell is the sniffing bloodhound who will follow the scent of individuality into whatever territory it leads him. The fascination of their dialogue, that dialogue of mind, heart and voice round which Boswell organized his great Life, is that it is not merely between two very different men but between two epochs. In its pages, Romantic Europe speaks to Renaissance Europe, and is answered” (Wain, 229).

The recipient, Archibald Erskine, 7th Earl of Kellie until his death in 1795, was the younger brother and heir of Thomas Alexander Erskine, who apparently makes an anonymous appearance in the present work. “Kellie’s coarse joviality made him one of the best-known men of his time… Dr. Johnson is supposed to have alluded to him in his censure of a certain Scotch lord celebrated for hard drinking” (DNB—citing Boswell’s Life of Dr. Johnson). Boswell made the acquaintance of the Erskine family 1761. The father, the fifth Earl of Kellie, had taken an active part in the Scottish rebellion of 1745 and had fought at Preston, Falkirk and Culloden (and had been imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle for three years). Boswell sought out Andrew, the Earl’s youngest son, a lieutenant in the 71st Regiment, on the recommendation of George Dempster, and he struck up a friendship that extended to the numerous siblings in the family, including Thomas Alexander, the composer and 6th Earl of Kellie, and Archibald, the 7th Earl and recipient of this volume, whom Boswell apparently nicknamed “The Owl.” Andrew was Boswell’s frequent companion for a period of time; they published their mutual correspondence in 1763. Eventually they drifted apart. In 1793, the year of the publication of the supplemental volume of Boswell’s Life, Andrew, beset by financial difficulties, drowned himself in the River Forth. With the engraved portrait of Johnson by James Heath after Sir Joshua Reynolds in Volume I and two engraved plates in Volume II. First issue, reading “gve” on page 135, line 10 of Volume I; cancel at Volume II, Qq3. Rothschild 463. Grolier 100. Armorial bookplates of the recipient, The Earl of Kellie; later owner booklabel of renowned book collector, educator, librarian, journalist, and minister Dewitt Miller affixed to rear pastedowns. Supplemental volume, uniformly bound, with other bookplates, early owner signature to title page, later signature to rear pastedown.

Frontispiece portrait foxed, as often. Occasional faint foxing to text, faint dampstain only affecting last several leaves of Volume II. An exceptional copy in contemporary marbled boards with the scarce supplemental volume, most rare and desirable presented and inscribed by the author.