Samuel Johnson

The first edition of Johnson's Dictionary.

• Sold as a set of 2 volumes.
• Samuel Johnson (English).
• A Dictionary of the English Language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers.
• London: Printed by W. Strahan, for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755.
• Folio.
• Title pages printed in red and black. Text printed in two columns.
• Recent period-style binding in full speckled calf, boards ruled and decorated in blind, spines gilt with contrasting lettering pieces.

A finely bound first edition of "the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography" (PMM).

Strahan's ledger shows that a printing charge was made to the proprietors of the dictionary at least as early as December, 1750. By the beginning of 1753, Johnson had resolved his differences with booksellers, and progress became more rapid, though he did not start the second volume until April, 1753. The dictionary was officially published on April 15, 1755, in an edition of 2,000 copies.

“Johnson's writings had, in philology, the effect which Newton's discoveries had in mathematics.” —Noah Webster