Johnson, Samuel, ed.

small 8vo, 68 volumes, including 10 volumes of prefaces and 2 index volumes, one of 1500 copies, first editions of the prefaces, portrait of Johnson (here bound at the beginning of the first volume of the "Prefaces"), contemporary mottled calf, blind-stamped arms on covers, spines gilt in compartments with morocco lettering-pieces (68)

Sir Charles Stuart, Baron Stuart de Rothesay (1779-1845), grandson of the 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister, his arms in blind on covers

[Prefaces:] Rothschild 1262; Courtney and Smith p.140

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A very fine copy of Johnson's canonical edition of the English poets.

Johnson had signed a contract with a consortium of booksellers on 29 March 1777, agreeing to supply "a concise account" of some fifty poets. The first instalment appeared in March 1779, the second in 1780, and the third in May 1781. Johnson's "major lives were quickly recognized as setting a new standard for English literary biography. In particular, the surveys of Cowley, Milton, Dryden, Swift, and Pope exemplify Johnson's serious concern with the deepest springs of creativity, as well as his ability to explore with considerable insight some individuals whose character and work aroused profound antipathy in him. Even in an age of greater theoretical sophistication, his reading of mainstream poetry from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries remains canonical, by reason of its attention to verbal detail, its decisive judgments, and its robust expression". (Pat Rogers, Oxford DNB)