JOHNSON, Samuel (1709--1784)
[Letters. Selections. 1788]
Letters to and from the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. To which are added some poems never before printed. Published from the original MSS. in her possession, by Hester Lynch Piozzi. In two volumes. ...
London:, printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell,, 1788.
2 vols ; 20.8 cm. (8º)
I: [2], xv, [1], 397, [1] p.
II: xi, [1], 424 p.

This was the first publication of a large body of Johnson's correspondence, edited by Hester Lynch Piozzi, as whose guest Samuel Johnson had lived for sixteen years during her first marriage to John Thrale. The bulk of the letters are those from Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, and cover a period from August 1765 (six months after their first meeting) to July 1784. The poems at the end of vol. II consist of Latin verses to Dr. Lawrence with a translation by Mrs. Piozzi, and translations from Boethius's De consolatione philosophiæ, mainly by Johnson but some in collaboration with Mrs. Piozzi. Without the errata slip present in some copies. ESTC t82906; Courtney & Smith, p. 168.

Copy Notes Bought from Thomas Boone for 6s., 24 November 1808. (Spiers Box). With Boone's price and codes in pencil on vol. I front free-endpaper.

Binding C18th half calf, marbled-paper boards, gilt-ruled spines, red morocco spine-labels

Reference Number 762

Additional Names Thomas Boone; Johnson, Samuel (1709--1784) - Correspondence; Piozzi, Hester Lynch (1741--1821)