Beschreibung:

BOSWELL, JAMES. Autograph manuscript notebook containing an account of a dream of Boswell's concerning the dead Dr. Samuel Johnson, three other mentions of Johnson, and various notes and memoranda (some possibly for his biography); with five assorted slips of paper laid in bearing Boswell's notes and memoranda. [Auchinleck (and elsewhere?), most of them probably 1785]. Together 17 pages, various sizes, in an old (original?) red leather folding wallet, maroon half morocco slipcase . "DREAMT I WAS SITTING WITH DR JOHNSON" The notebook: 9 pages, 16mo (4 7/8 x 2 7/8in., 122 x 72mm.), written on both sides of 4 leaves and the remaining inside front cover of a pocket notebook, the rear cover and 8 leaves cut away leaving narrow stubs (on which fragments of words are visible on 4 stubs and a fragmentary phrase is readable on the stub of the rear cover), original greenish-blue paper front cover. The five laid-in slips: 8 pages in Boswell's hand (another page has numbers in an unidentified hand), ranging from 2 5/8 x 2 7/8in. (66 x 72mm.) to 6 5/16 x 4in. (160 x 100mm.), on different kinds of paper (not from the notebook), one slip with marginal chips affecting a few numbers . Boswell's dream of Samuel Johnson ( one page, 16mo, closely written ): "Carlisle in the night between the 21 & 22 March 1785 dreamt I was sitting with Dr Johnson. Did not recollect he was dead but thought he had been very ill & wondered to see him looking very well. I said to him you are very well Sir[.] He called out in a forcible pathetick tone O no. He said I have written the letter to Paoli which you desired[.] He then expressed himself towards me in the most obliging manner saying he would do all in his power (or words to that purpose) to shew his affection and respect, & seemed to [continued vertically along inner margin] to [ sic ] search his mind for variety of good words." Johnson had died at the age of 74 on 13 December 1784. (A manuscript by Boswell, one page, oblong 4to , of another, similar dream he had of Johnson "in the night between 5 & 6 Febry 1785," was sold in these rooms, 17 May 1989, lot 28, $38,000.) A mention of Johnson in the notebook: "Dr. Johnson in mentioning humbled Cattel [ sic ] has not recollected that Tacitus de Mor[.] Germ[.] Cap[.] ij has mentioned such Cattel as a speies [ sic for "species"?] [-] Laird of Fairlie [this information probably given to Boswell by the laird]." In a draft of a letter ( one page, 16mo , in the notebook) Boswell again mentions Johnson: "Auchinleck. 20 March 1785. To Dr. Brocklesby. My Dear Sir. At this romantick seat of my Ancestors where I should be most heartily glad to see you, I was favoured with your last letter containing additional circumstances of the last hours in this state of being of our illustrious departed Freind [ sic ] Dr. Johnson. I am very much obliged to you, My Dear Sir..." On another page in the notebook is the cryptic phrase: "Mem in Dr. Johnson -- Procrs. I changed to Animus jocandi ." The inside front cover of the notebook contains a draft of a note from Boswell ("the Laird of Auchinleck") to "The Right Honourable Archibald Earl of Eglintoune," presenting a copy of 'Wanley's Wonders'; two notebook pages contain a list of birth dates of various British personages (from 1695 to 1771); among the some other eight notes and memoranda in the notebook are references to his reading and mentions of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Joseph Banks, etc. Among the five laid-in slips is one ( 2 pages, 16mo ) listing birth dates of some Boswell family members and numerous other personages; the other four slips include four lines of verse, a few references to Boswell's reading, and memoranda concerning his estate, etc. With typed or manuscripts transcripts. Bookplate of Chauncey Brewster Tinker affixed to inside of slipcase. (Milne)