Works of the English Poets with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical & Index to the English Poets

Forty-three volumes of the sixty-eight volume set of The Works of the English Poets, with prefaces and biographies by Dr. Samuel Johnson. Forty-three volumes of sixty-eight volume set. Scarce collection. Written by Dr. Samuel Johnson, an English writer considered to have made lasting contributions as a poet, essayist, playwright, moralist, and biographer. He was also a literary critic, sermonist, lexicographer and editor who is described as "the most distinguished man of letters in English history" by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. An enormous collection of the works and prefaces to the works of many of the greatest poets of the English language at the time of publication. These poets include: Cowley, Waller, Milton, Butler, Dryden, Denham, Sprat, Roscommon, Rochester, Yalden, Otway, Duke, Dorset, Halifax, Stepney, Walsh, Garth, King, J. Phillips, Smith, Pomfret, Hughes, Addison, Blackmore, Sheffield, Granville, Rowe, Tickell, Congreve, Fenton, Pope, Swift, Gay, Broome, Pitt, Parnell, A. Philips, Watts, Savage, Somerville, Thomson, Hammond, Collins, Young, Dyer, Mallet, Shenstone, Akenside, Lyttelton, West, and Gray. This set includes: Prefaces, Biographical and Critical to the Works of the English Poets, 1779-1781. Complete in ten volumes. Volume one contains a portrait frontispiece. The Works of the English Poets, 1779-1781. Lacking volumes seven, twelve, thirteen, seventeen, eighteen, twenty-one, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty, forty-one, forty-two, forty-four, forty-five, forty-seven, fifty-five, and fifty-six for a total of thirty-one volumes from a set of fifty-six. Volumes one, three, six, eight, nine, eleven, twenty, twenty-two, twenty-nine, thirty, forty-three, forty-six, forty-eight, fifty, fifty-three, and fifty-four contain a portrait frontispiece. Index to the English Poets, 1780. Complete in two volumes. Bound in full calf. Externally, smart with light shelf wear and minor loss to the extremities, particularly the head and tail of the spines. Minor loss to the odd spine label. Joints cracked to 'Prefaces' volume one, two, seven, and nine, as well as 'The Works of' volumes two, three, four, twenty-eight, and both volumes of 'Index to'. A price sticker to the front board of 'Index to' volume two. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright with the odd spot and light age toning to the extremities. Light spotting to the rear pages of 'The Works of' volume eleven. Age toning to the endpapers. Good. …