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8vo in fours, pp. [ii], '180' (actually 186); without the half title, but with the final leaf bearing an advertisement for Johnson's Life of Barretier; title page laid down (and possibly washed: the paper is cleaner and thicker than the rest of the volume), and with the date in the imprint carefully erased; occasional foxing; in 19th century polished calf by Ramage, upper cover detached. First edition, first state of the final leaf. This was Johnson's most famous biography, the account of his early friend the writer Richard Savage. Savage (d. 1743) had befriended the young Johnson on his first coming to London, and although he was known as much for his quarrelsome nature as for his extravagance and profligacy, they kept a fast friendship until the older man's early death. Johnson had an occasional fondness for honest rogues, and their shared poverty in London was no doubt a particular bond. Boswell relates the well known story, told him by Reynolds, that they spent one night walking round St James's Square, for want of a lodging, 'in high spirits and brimful of patriotism'. Reynolds also told Boswell a story which testifies to the immediate and lasting success of Johnson's biography of his friend: he picked up a copy of the book, 'knowing nothing of its authour, and began to read it while he was standing with his arm leaning against a chimney-piece. It seized his attention so strongly that, not being able to lay down the book until he had finished it, when he attempted to move, he found his arm totally benumbed' (I p. 165). The Account was written in great haste: Johnson told Boswell in the Hebrides that at one sitting, he wrote 48 printed pages. Most copies of this book seem to lack the half title. This copy is of the first issue, with no erratum at the foot of the last page of text (leaf Bb1); the final leaf is an advertisement for Johnson's biography of Barretier. Old bibliographies suggest that it can be a blank, but Fleeman is firm that the presence of a blank is a 'sophistication' (p. 96); he is however quite clear that the erratum represents a second state of Bb1, although he is agnostic on the question of when it was done, or if it represents a 'distinct issue'. Fleeman 44.2LS/1 (pp. 95-8); Courtney & Nichol Smith p. 15; Chapman & Hazen p. 128; Rothschild 1223. Provenance. Late 19th century bookplate of T. Taylor; more recent one of Ethel Mary Portal (1862-1926).
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