LITERATURE 12 “That Dialogue Of Mind, Heart And Voice”: First Edition Of Boswell’s Life Of Johnson, 1791 First edition, first state of “the most famous biography in any language, one of Western literature’s most germinal achievements.” Handsomely bound in full morocco-gilt by Zaehnsdorf in 1905. “The Shakespeare of biographers” (Macaulay), James Boswell “excelled in insight into human nature and in ability to dramatize a situation. For such purposes [Dr. Samuel] Johnson was God’s plenty… Boswell was not merely a conscientious preserver of detail; he was also an inspired shaping artist. He knew, and transmits, the sound of his subject’s voice to a degree unparalleled in other biographers… Completeness of portrayal was certainly Boswell’s aim—and his accomplishment” (Baugh et al., 1065-66). “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). “Boswell’s Life of Johnson remains the most famous biography in any language, one of Western literature’s most germinal achievements…” (DNB). Volume I is first state, with “gve” uncorrected on page 135, line 10 (a change made before publication). Grolier 100. Small bookplate; minor evidence of tipped-in material on front flyleaves (blank). Faint foxing to frontispiece in Volume I and first few leaves of Volume II; interiors generally clean. Minor rubbing to joints and extremities. A very handsomely bound copy. 07 BOSWELL, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Co London, 1791. Two volumes. Quarto, 20th-century full red straight-grain morocco gilt. $17,500
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