JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784). A Dictionary of the English Language . London: W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton, T. and N. Longman, C. Hitch and L. Hawes, A. Millar, and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755. 2° (417 x 238mm). Titles in red and black. Printed in double column. (Title to volume I with hole affecting one letter and repair along inner margin of verso, also tattered and soiled at margins, some browning and spotting, generally light but more obtrusive on 26S1-26T2 and other leaves in vol. II, occasional creasing, 19R1 in vol. II with 40mm. internal tear, 25Y1-25Z2 with repaired tears affecting both columns and causing loss of a few letters, 27D2 holed with partial loss of several words, final two leaves torn at margin.) Near contemporary calf, double fillet on covers, spines with red and black morocco lettering-pieces (rubbed, joints cracked, front cover of vol. II almost detached). Provenance : several annotations in an early hand -- Frank Muir (ownership stamp). FIRST EDITION. Johnson and his successive amanuenses took nine years to complete the Dictionary which was published on 15 April, 1755, in an edition of 2000 copies. As Johnson famously stated in the preface, the difficulties were many for it 'was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow'. While there were other dictionaries on the market, Johnson became 'the first in England to combine in one reliable work the various functions we now demand of a dictionary' (James Clifford, Dictionary Johnson , 1979, p. 145). His methodology was vastly superior, and his use of illustrative quotations something altogether new in an English dictionary, though his view of the language was in fact deeply conservative, with Teutonic words preferred to Gallic. Together the two volumes contain over 116,000 quotations which had, as his preface testifies, been largely collected 'from the writers before the restoration, whose works I regard as the wells of English undefiled , as the pure sources of genuine diction.' Courtney and Smith p. 54; Chapman and Hazen p. 137; Fleeman 55.4D/1a; Rothschild 1237. (2)
JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784). A Dictionary of the English Language . London: W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton, T. and N. Longman, C. Hitch and L. Hawes, A. Millar, and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755. 2° (417 x 238mm). Titles in red and black. Printed in double column. (Title to volume I with hole affecting one letter and repair along inner margin of verso, also tattered and soiled at margins, some browning and spotting, generally light but more obtrusive on 26S1-26T2 and other leaves in vol. II, occasional creasing, 19R1 in vol. II with 40mm. internal tear, 25Y1-25Z2 with repaired tears affecting both columns and causing loss of a few letters, 27D2 holed with partial loss of several words, final two leaves torn at margin.) Near contemporary calf, double fillet on covers, spines with red and black morocco lettering-pieces (rubbed, joints cracked, front cover of vol. II almost detached). Provenance : several annotations in an early hand -- Frank Muir (ownership stamp). FIRST EDITION. Johnson and his successive amanuenses took nine years to complete the Dictionary which was published on 15 April, 1755, in an edition of 2000 copies. As Johnson famously stated in the preface, the difficulties were many for it 'was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow'. While there were other dictionaries on the market, Johnson became 'the first in England to combine in one reliable work the various functions we now demand of a dictionary' (James Clifford, Dictionary Johnson , 1979, p. 145). His methodology was vastly superior, and his use of illustrative quotations something altogether new in an English dictionary, though his view of the language was in fact deeply conservative, with Teutonic words preferred to Gallic. Together the two volumes contain over 116,000 quotations which had, as his preface testifies, been largely collected 'from the writers before the restoration, whose works I regard as the wells of English undefiled , as the pure sources of genuine diction.' Courtney and Smith p. 54; Chapman and Hazen p. 137; Fleeman 55.4D/1a; Rothschild 1237. (2)
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
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