JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY (2) Vol. FOLIO SOCIETY Facsimile

Limited Edition

Stunning Folio Society facsimile edition of Samuel Johnson's landmark A Dictionary of the English Language. Copy #637 of 1,000. Two volumes in custom slipcase. Facsimile of first edition, retaining original errata. Approximate size: 18" x 11" x 7". "THE FOLIO SOCIETY FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY HAS BEEN PRINTED BY ST EDMUNDSBURY PRESS, BURY ST EDMUNDS, ON FAVINI TONED PAPER AND BOUND BY SMITH SETTLE OF OTLEY IN DAPPLED CALFSKIN LEATHER WITH SIDES AND EDGES MARBLED BY ANN MUIR". Please note that an upgraded custom styrofoam-lined box will be built to ship this set

BRIEF HISTORY:

Published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language.

There was dissatisfaction with the dictionaries of the period, so in June 1746 a group of London booksellers contracted Johnson to write a dictionary for the sum of 1,500 guineas, equivalent to about £220,000 as of 2009.[1] Johnson took nearly nine years to complete the work, although he had claimed he could finish it in three. Remarkably, he did so single-handedly, with only clerical assistance to copy out the illustrative quotations that he had marked in books. Johnson produced several revised editions during his life.

Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary, 173 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary. According to Walter Jackson Bate, the Dictionary "easily ranks as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship, and probably the greatest ever performed by one individual who labored under anything like the disadvantages in a comparable length of time".

Source: Wikipedia

CONDITION: Flawless. Immaculate.

The following terms apply: