The Dictionary - photo 1
The Dictionary - photo 2

The Dictionary

Lot 64
27.06.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
$ 6 300
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1236294
Lot 64 | The Dictionary
Estimate value
$ 8 000 – 12 000
JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784). A Dictionary of the English Language. London: Printed by W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton, et al., 1755.

A lovely copy of the first edition of Johnson’s magnum opus, "a monument of industry and talent [and] the unrivalled authority for the English language" (Courtney and Smith p.54). Johnson’s achievement in compiling his great Dictionary was immediately recognized. In one of its earliest reviews, Adam Smith commended it, and Boswell called it a work of "superior excellence"; it was the only work Johnson called "my Book" (Letters I: 71). Not only did he provide lucid definitions and codify spelling but he provided c. 114,000 illustrative quotations, providing a compendium of excerpts from canonical works of English literature, meaning that even today it "may still be consulted for instruction as well as pleasure" (PMM). Noah Webster claimed that it was to language what Newton’s discoveries were to mathematics. Johnson's great literary labor, produced in the garret of his house in Gough Square, was published in 2,000 copies, and Fleeman estimated that over half may survive. The present copy is with variant setting b for 19D (press figure 5) and variant setting b for 24O (no press figure). Courtney & Smith, p. 54-55, Fleeman 55.4D/1a, Rothschild 1237, William B. Todd, "Note 242: Variants in Johnson's Dictionary, 1755", in The Book Collector, 14, Summer 1965, pp. 212-214.

Two volumes, folio (420 x 241mm). Titles in red and black, woodcut tail-pieces (intermittent mild browning, a handful of small marginal tears/losses with one closed tear touching about nine lines). Contemporary mottled calf (rebacked with original spines laid down).
Artist:Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)
Place of origin:England
Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
13.06.2024 – 27.06.2024
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

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