A Life in The Shadow Library?

 

The Life of Samuel Johnson (Abridged), by James Boswell

I can’t tell you when 'this' paperback edition came out, or even which company did it. This is not even the cover for it, but just an approximation of the color scheme. It was in the format of a series of classic reprints, very plain, of two split colors and simple text titles. I remember John had a volume of William Blake in the same format, but that was a sort of aquamarine instead of red.

And, at the moment, I am not even absolutely sure if the book is in the Shadow Library or not. I can only say it is not showing in any of the more available stacks. That it did not show up in my earlier listings is suspicious, even so, though there is a slim chance that I couldn’t find a picture for it, postponed it for a while, and then simply forgot. But I fear that it was simply the victim of one of my previous ruthless winnowings; after all, I had since got more complete editions.

It's a bit of a shame, for it was the first Boswell I had ever read. I had been interested in the bits and pieces I had read about Johnson before, and his character as a stodgy eccentric (the very quality that puts many people off from him and his work) was making me rather enamored with the good Doctor (of Literature, of course, but in his latter years most people referred to him with the honorific). This 'streamlined' version was an easy introduction. I claimed this edition as my selection of classic English literature we had to choose from in my senior year in Mrs. Richardson’s class, and I passed my oral examination on it with flying colors.

The peculiar thing is that I often think of it as ‘reading Johnson,’ though the author Boswell himself appears as a character in the later years, as a witness to some of the great man’s character and doings, and especially his opinions, which Boswell was always curiously provoking, just to see what Johnson would say. Perhaps it is because it is witnessing Johnson, in a way, writing his own life as he lives it, and Boswell being careful to give it in the man’s own words when he can.

Well, anyway, if the book somehow turns up or if I can find the publisher (and hence the actual cover) I shall make an update on this entry. In the meantime, this stands here as a placeholder.