johnsoniana (5 Ergebnisse)

Now first reprinted from the original record of the Proceedings, with an Introduction and Notes. Quarto. 20 pages. Two plates. Sewn wrappers.Slight creasing to covers. Head of spine nicked. Very good. Scarce.

4to bifolium. The text, in small print, covers the final three pages. On aged and foxed paper. Inscribed, at the head of the title, 'from R. W. C.' The recipient was Cecil Harmsworth, who has written in pencil, beneath the inscription: 'C H | 26/ii/ 1927'. (Harmsworth was the proprietor of the Johnson house, which he had bought in 1911.) Scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at Oxford.

Fourth edition. Fourth edition. Frontispiece of Johnson by Harding, etched by Trotter. 204pp. 1 vols. 12mo. Full mottled calf, rebacked. Some internal staining, else very good Frontispiece of Johnson by Harding, etched by Trotter. 204pp. 1 vols. 12mo.

Small 8vo in fours, engraved frontispiece (damaged at head, and repaired, but with no loss of image), and pp. [ii], ix, [i], 195; cut close and unevenly at foredge, shaving the text on a very few pages (e.g. pp. 6 and 47-8); rebound in modern quarter calf over marbled boards, spine with morocco gilt label. Early edition, perhaps the third to be published in London: there were two London editions in 1776, and a piracy in Dublin: this one followed the next year, and appears to be the last published. Johnson himself was unaware of this unauthorised collection of his sayings until Boswell told him about it on a trip by boat to Blackfriars. Johnson called it 'a mighty impudent thing' but declined to prosecute the publisher, even though Boswell pointed out that by not disavowing it he might be thought to be admitting it as genuine. This was on 16 March, when Boswell says that the book was 'advertised to be published in a few days' (Hill Powell II 432). The bons mots, by the way, are not by any means all Johnsonian: other contemporaries such as Sheridan, Goldsmith and Foote are prominently represented. This edition has been revised, and has a new preface, signed 'T.M.', in which the editor claims that he has 'expunged all indecent, low and hackneyed jests; and he dares to present this edition to the most austere philosopher, or rigid matron: yet he flatters himself it will not be found the less entertaining, by those of all ages and ranks, who prefer decent wit and good sense, to indelicate and immoral ribaldry' (p. v). ESTC records twelve copies, although as usual the copies located at Harvard overstate their actual holdings (they have two, not three, copies, and one of those is incomplete). In the UK there are just three (BL, Bodleian and Rylands), and in North America they are only to be found at McMaster, Yale, Clark, Harvard and Smith College; there is also one at the National Library of Australia.

1 vols. 12mo. "A New edition, being the Seventh therein the two volumes are comprised in one, and arranged under one alphabet, with considerable additions" 1 vols. 12mo. Mangin's note recounts a marvelous anecdote told to him by Mrs. Bullen, the wife of Admiral Bullen, and which he claims had never been published. "She met, at Mrs. Holroyd's, Miss Harriett Bowdler, who spoke of having been invited to meet Dr. J at dinner at the house of a mutual acquaintance. Miss B . in terror of the formidable man, resolved not to say a word all day, but music being mentioned, Johnson said he disliked both the science and those who practised it; adding that all musical people were fools. The lady forgot her predetermination and murmured timidly, 'Surely, doctor, King David was no fool'! "Johnson rose from his seat, walked round to her chair, and laying his hands on the back of it, said, with great solemnity, she expecting a severe rebuke, 'Dear Lady, I thank you for the lesson you have taught me, and will never say so silly a thing again.'" The Dublin-born writer and translator, Edward Mangin (1772-1852) is perhaps best remembered for his PIOZZIANA, OR, RECOLLECTIONS OF THE LATE MRS PIOZZI, BY A FRIEND (1833), of which, together with his edition of Richardson, The Gentleman's Magazine (1853) commented: "Upon neither of these works did he bestow a very large amount of labour or research." On the other hand, his contemporary biographers felt that his abilities were not fully realized in his works. Full mottled calf, neatly rebacked, the original gilt spine laid down with a new green leather label. Bookplate of EDWARD MANGIN on front pastedown, his signature of the title page, a few corrections in the text, and an full-page autograph note on the verso of the flyleaf A New edition, being the Seventh therein the two volumes are comprised in one, and arranged under one alphabet, with considerable additions.