Samuel Johnson and James Boswell

The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volumes I – III, Edited by Bruce Redford.

Only the first three volumes of a set, I fear. “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, known as the Hyde Edition, is the most complete scholarly edition of Johnson's letters ever to appear. In editing these five volumes, Bruce Redford has included fifty-two newly discovered letters or parts of letters, and he has supplied more accurate versions of many others. Redford also has decoded numerous references that previously had resisted explanation, and his annotations integrate the vital discoveries of recent scholarship. The overall result is a far richer understanding of Samuel Johnson's life, work, and milieu …  Volume IV [one I lack] chronicles the last three years of Johnson's life, a period of protracted struggle against a variety of ailments and of heroic commitment to preserving a sound mind in a radically unsound body. This epistolary endgame includes the breakup of the friendship with Hester Thrale, medical dramas of every description, and a poignant reaching out to new friends and new experiences.” – Oxford University Press. Volume V is a slimmer volume that includes undatable letters and an index. I found these at a San Antonio Half-Price. Even softcover copies of those missing volumes are going for $60+.

Ranking: Keepers

File Codes: Letters. Literature. Hardbacks.

Everybody’s Boswell: Being the Life of Samuel Johnson abridged from James Boswell’s complete text and from the “Tour to the Hebrides”. Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepherd. Wordsworth Editions.

A nicely edited combination of Boswell’s published works on Johnson, and illustrated by Shepherd, famous for his work on “The Wind in the Willows” and “Winnie-the-Pooh”.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Biography. Illustrated. Hardback.

Boswells Journal of “A Tour to the Hebrides”, Boswell’s London Journal 1962 – 1963 (Yale Edition), Boswell in Holland (Yale Edition), by James Boswell.

James Boswell’s private journals, along with many of his other papers, were only rediscovered tucked away in Malahide Castle in the 1920’s. They were printed out over the years and give added (often unexpurgated) insight into his life and times. These were the volumes I was able to snag (the first two from Yesterday’s Warehouse; they’re now in pretty rough shape); there are several others in the series which I wouldn’t mind having.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Journals. Literary. Hardback.

The Journals of James Boswell 1762-1795, Selected and Introduced by John Wain.

A single volume selection from the more interesting and significant parts of Boswell’s rediscovered Journals. “Writer, rake, wit, traveler, and man-about-town, James Boswell kept a diary for thirty-three years, beginning just before his first trip to London and extending over his eventful life till shortly before his death in 1795. This one-volume selection of Boswell's journal entries, gathered and introduced by the distinguished poet and novelist John Wain, brings to life both a pre-eminent chronicler of eighteenth-century Britain and the tumultuous land about which he wrote so well.” – Yale Books. “[John] Wain's tutor at Oxford had been C. S. Lewis. He encountered, but did not see himself part of the group of Lewis's literary acquaintances, the Inklings.” – Wikipedia.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Journal. Biography. Softcover.

The Life of Samuel Johnson, by James Boswell.

A Wordsworth Classic, complete and unabridged. I first read this book in an abridged Modern Library College paperback edition in my senior year in high school; until recently I still had it but can’t quite lay my hand on it now. Perhaps I sold it, feeling this copy superseded its ancient, crumbly presence. I suppose I must have been intrigued by the curmudgeonly figure of Johnson from somewhere; his acerbic wit and vast learning appealed to me, as did his 18^th century milieu. Everything I read about him appealed to my sympathies: a poor boy with bad eyes, an autodidact with only nine months at college, a tragic family life, a proud fight with poverty that still allowed him personal charity, a long struggle that finally ended in triumph through learning and wits alone, and at last renown and financial stability. His personal sense of morality that took no account of social sensibilities.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Biography. Literary. Softcover.

Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work that Defined the English Language, Edited by Jack Lynch.

“Samuel Johnson's 1755 two volume, 2,300 page dictionary marked a milestone in language. The work of a great reader and writer, and an earnest compiler, it was England's definitive dictionary for over 150 years until it was superseded by The Oxford English Dictionary. This new edition contains more than 3,100 selections faithfully adapted from the original. Bristling with quotations, the Dictionary offers a treasury of memorable passages on subjects ranging from books and critics to dreams and ethics. For those who appreciate literature and love language, this is a browser's delight - an encyclopaedia of the age and a dictionary for the ages.” – Amazon.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Browser. Literary History. Softcover.

A Life of James Boswell, by Peter Martin.

A compendious account of Boswell’s life, which I cannot say I have read yet. Has the obligatory slick insert of illustrations in the middle.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Biography. Softcover.

A Johnson Reader, Edited by E. L. McAdam Jr. and George Milne.

“Edited by two of the country's leading Johnson scholars, this book includes all of Johnson's most famous works, including "Life of Milton", "Life of Gray", "Rasselas", "Preface to Shakespeare", "Vanity of Human Wishes" and "Preface to the Dictionary". 1964.” – Amazon. Alas, Nippy chewed on my copy a little.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Reader. Selections. Hardback.

A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland by Samuel Johnson, with The Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides, by James Boswell.

Everyman’s Library. An account of the same trip from two different sides, the famous scholar and his famous disciple who arranged it. While Johnson was writing for publication, Boswell was recording his private observations in his personal journals. Has a ribbon bookmark.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Travel. Journal. Hardback.

A Dr. Johnson Chronology, by Norman Page.

“This chronology, like others in the series, presents the story of Dr Johnson's life in a readily accessible format to provide scholar and general reader alike with a quick guide to dates, people and places together with supplementary indexes.” – Springer Link.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Biography. Chronology. Hardback.

Samuel Johnson, by W. Jackson Bate.

I read this in the college library and was happy to find this edition years later. Perhaps the best biography of the Doctor I’ve ever read (sorry, Jemmie). “In this biography - a work that won three of the most prestigious literary prizes this country offers - W. Jackson Bate delves deep into the character that formed Johnson's awesome intellect and fueled his prodigious output. The first great modern biography of Johnson, it confirms that his statements and judgments on literature, politics, religion, behavior - on all human experience - are as relevant in our age as when they were first uttered.” – Google Books. I have chosen this book more than once to be a vade mecum on long, unpleasant journeys – there is nothing like reading Johnson’s struggles to stiffen your own spine. There is a sort of wrinkly plastic coat on the cover that can be a little distracting.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Biography. Literary. Softcover.

Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, by Samuel Johnson.

Edited by P. J. Hardy. At the age of fifty, Johnson wrote this ‘novel’ in only one week, to help pay for his mother’s funeral. “The plot is simple in the extreme, and the characters are flat. Rasselas, the fourth son of the King of Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia), is shut up in a beautiful valley called The Happy Valley, "till the order of succession should call him to the throne".  He grows weary of the factitious entertainments of the place, and after much brooding escapes with his sister Nekayah, her attendant Pekuah and his poet-friend Imlac by digging under the wall of the valley. They are to see the world and search for happiness in places such as Cairo and Suez. After some sojourn in Egypt, where they encounter various classes of society and undergo a few mild adventures, they perceive the futility of their search and abruptly return to Abyssinia after none of their hopes for happiness are achieved.” – Wikipedia. I haven’t read it, and probably never will, but, hey, Johnson. [Not my cover.]

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Philosophical ‘Romance’. Softcover.

Samuel Johnson: Selected Poetry and Prose. Edited by Bertrand H. Bronson.

Rinehart Edition. Letters, poetry, essays, prefaces and criticism, this book is another “good parts” sampler of Johnson’s works. Only $1 at Hardt’s. [Not my cover.]

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Browser. Samuel Johnson. Softcover.

Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson, by Hesther Lynch Piozzi.

When Samuel Johnson became an intimate with the family of her first husband, Henry Thrale, Hester kept a record of the ‘Great Cham’ of literature for twenty years. After his death she published this personal account of observed instances and incidents that revealed his character. Though they had had a falling out after her second marriage (which Johnson considered infidelity to his friend Thrale), Hester (a writer and something of a patroness in her own right) never ceased promoting the great lexicographer’s memory, though she couldn’t abide the sloppy way he ate his ‘plum pudden’.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Anecdotes. Biography. Softcover.