HANDSOME THIRD EDITION OF THE WORKS OF THE ENGLISH POETS WITH PREFACES AND LIVES BY SAMUEL JOHNSON

JOHNSON, Samuel. The Works of the English Poets… With Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Dr. Samuel Johnson: and the Most Approved Translations. The Additional Lives by Alexander Chalmers, F.S.A. London: J. Johnson et al., 1810. Twenty-one volumes. Octavo, early full brown calf, raised bands, burgundy morocco spine labels, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, marbled endpapers and edges. $5500.

Third edition of Johnson’s great final project, the lives of the English poets together with their works, with the continuation by Chalmers, very handsomely bound.

In 1777, prominent London booksellers commissioned Johnson to write, as Johnson told Boswell, "little lives and little prefaces to a little edition of the English poets" (Wain, 344). "The series consisted of the 56 volumes of the Poets (dated 1779) and Volumes I-IV of [Johnson's] Prefaces. The intention had been to prefix the prefaces to the volumes of poets, but the publishers could not afford to wait," and printed the poems' texts separately from Johnson's biographies of the poets; both his volumes and these, however, were originally sold together. "'Johnson's Poets' form an attractive and useful collection; but the volumes being small were easily mislaid, and it is now hard to find a set which is complete and uniform in binding" (Courtney & Smith, 156). This third edition—preceded by the first and the 1790 second edition—is in a larger format than the first two. With additional lives by Scottish writer Alexander Chalmers: Chalmer's biography of Johnson himself, along with Johnson's poetry, is in Volume XVI.

Scattered light foxing. A beautifully bound set in excellent condition.