samuel johnson attrib (2 Ergebnisse)

Second edition (first published 1777). 12mo. Full 18th-c. tree calf with contrasting title label and ornament to spine; [ii],xxxvi,192pp; frontispiece portrait; wanting half-title. A pretty copy, joints and boards firm and free of notable wear; internally fresh and free of foxing; Very Good indeed. Early presentation to front endpaper, "N.S.[?] Nancy Henning from her Affectionate Father;" further signed on verso of frontispiece, "Henning / [illegible] / 1789;" and, to title-page, "Henning-Smyth." Second edition of this much-reprinted work of prison literature, a verse apologia composed by William Dodd, an Anglican minister, in the weeks following his imprisonment for forging the name of his former student, the Earl of Chesterfield, on a £4,000 bank note. Chesterfield was not in a forgiving mood, and the work culminates with Dodds' prayer composed the night before his execution for the crime. Includes "The Convict's Address to His Unhappy Brethren," which appears on pp.157-78, and is generally atrributed to Samuel Johnson. Indeed, Johnson publicly petitioned for clemency in Dodd's case, despite his own misgivings regarding the convict's character, which were succinctly expressed in a letter to Boswell written the day following the execution: "His character is very bad; I hope all is not true that is charged upon him." A desirable copy, very well-preserved, with a contemporary woman reader's provenance. ESTC T133880. COURTNEY-NICHOL SMITH pp. 128-129.

Zustand: Very Good -. Boston, New-England: Printed and Sold by Thomas and John Fleet, in Cornhill; and Green & Ruslell [sic], and Edes & Gill, in Queenstreet, 1763. First Edition. Octavo (19.5cm.); removed, remnants of old sheep along spine; [4],93,[1]pp. ([A2] B4 B-M4, lacking final blank). First two gatherings separated but present, texblock a bit toned, partly-trimmed contemporary ownership signature at head of title page; a Good to Very Good example, internally clean and sound. Anonymously-penned response to Jonathan Mayhew's hugely important treatise, published the same year and titled "Observations on the Charter and Conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel," which sounded the alarm against the presence of members of the Church of England arriving in New England in search of converts and colonial taxes. Adams, in major part due to Mayhew's tract, listed Mayhew as one of the five men who began the American Revolution (see Mark G. Spencer [ed.], "Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment," (2015), p. 697). This counter-attack attributed to Henry Caner (1700-1793), a prominent member of the offending party the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The appended "Letter to a Friend" has also been attributed to Samuel Johnson, and opens with the harsh statement that "It is too evident from the general current of Dr. Mayhew's performance, That, it is his aim to beget a prejudice, and an odium in his readers, against his antagonist, and against the church of England, and the Society" (p. 81). Quite uncommon: we locate no other copies in the trade as of February, 2023. Last seen at auction in 1997. EVANS 9360; ESTC W30204; SABIN 10681.