Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$30.78 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Vol III- First edition without jacket on red cloth will send out 1 st class post - rare and collectable
Seller: The Guru Bookshop, Hereford, United Kingdom
Price: US$50.67 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Full brown leather, raised bands, gilt titles & devices, missing paper spine labels, marbled end papers, light wear to the extremities. photos on request Will not ship this outside of the US & possessions
Seller: Ashworth Books, Sidney, NY, U.S.A.
James Boswell. Boswell's Life of Johnson [Six Volumes]. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1887.
Price: US$60.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Hard Covers Without DJs, covers green cloth with some wear on edge. six volumes 1887.
Seller: Bookstore Brengelman, cincinnati, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$76.96 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: - Complete 6 Volume Set - Vol I, xxvii/522pp; Vol II, 480pp; Vol III, 464pp; Vol IV, 446pp; Vol V, 460pp, Vol VI, 324pp - Corners and spine ends bumped and heads of spine slightl pulled but still strong - Covers a little rubbed - Fore-edges and bases of text blocks browned - Endpapers toned - Spines of volumes V & VI cracked but still strong - Books ow/ solid, clean and tight - No dustwrappers - xxvii, 2696 pages
Seller: Green Ink Booksellers, Hay-on-Wye, United Kingdom
Price: US$83.37 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Size: 8vo <9 3/4". 6-volume set (complete). Bindings firm. Vol 1 rebacked with original spine laid onto new cloth. Loss to top half of spine of Vol 4 and bottom third of Vol 5. Scattered foxing. Previous owner's inscription in ink. Edges foxed and browned. Top edge gilt in good condition. Laminated covers. Corners bumped. Illustrated, with fold-outs. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Over 5 kilos. Category: Literature & Literary; England; 18th century; Biography & Autobiography. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 41957. This book is extra heavy, and may involve extra shipping charges to some countries.
Seller: Dreadnought Books, Bristol, United Kingdom
James Boswell; George Birkbeck Hill [ed.]. Boswell's Life of Johnson. Clarendon Press, London, 1887.
Price: US$89.79 + shipping
Description: James Boswell's complete six volume biography of Samuel Johnson, illustrated throughout. A complete six volume set of James Boswell's biography of English writer Dr. Samuel Johnson. Edited by George Birkbeck Hill, and including both Boswell's 'Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides', and Johnson's 'Diary of a Journey into North Wales'.The first edition thus of this set, being the first edition edited by Hill.Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait to three volumes, and eight folding plates. Collated, complete.A landmark work in the development of the modern biography in English, many have claimed it as the greatest biography ever written. Nevertheless, this biography takes many critical liberties with Johnson's life, with Boswell making various changes to Johnson's quotations and even censoring his comments. In the publisher's original quarter morocco bindings. Losses of leather to spine heads and tails. Significant losses of leather to head and tail of volume V back strip, and to head of volume I back strip. Further cracking to volumes II and III spines. Rear joint of volume VI and front joint of volume II starting, with boards holding firm. Rear joint of volume II starting, with board weakly held. Internally, firmly bound. Pages clean and bright. Good Only
Seller: Rooke Books PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom
Price: US$160.33 + shipping
Description: A complete set of James Boswell's biography of the illustrious man of letters, Dr Samuel Johnson. Edited by George Birkbeck Hill. Also containing Boswell's Journal of A Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey into North Wales. Illustrated throughout with fourteen plates (collated complete), including a folding coloured map. Volume I: The Life (1709-1765), Volume II: The Life (1766-1776), Volume III: The Life (1776-1780), Volume IV: The Life (1780-1784), Volume V: The Tour to the Hebrides and The Journey into North Wales, and Volume VI: Addenda, Index, Dicta Philosophi, etc. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791) is a biography of Dr. Samuel Johnson written by James Boswell. It is regarded as an important stage in the development of the modern genre of biography; many have claimed it as the greatest biography written in English. While Boswell's personal acquaintance with his subject only began in 1763, when Johnson was 54 years old, Boswell covered the entirety of Johnson's life by means of additional research. The biography takes many critical liberties with Johnson's life, as Boswell makes various changes to Johnson's quotations and even censors many comments. Regardless of these actions, modern biographers have found Boswell's biography as an important source of information. The work was popular among early audiences and with modern critics. Complete in six volumes. In green cloth bindings. Externally sound, though with some light bumping and wear to the extremities. Erased library markings to spine. 1 hinge tender, with endpapers and frontispiece working loose, with all other hinges strained. Internally, binding strained in places. Institutional label to endpapers, and ink stamps throughout. Pages are slightly browned. Good Only
Seller: Rooke Books PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Six volumes in quarter green checked morocco, olive cloth boards, each 9 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches, bindings tight. Round private initial stamp on recto of frontispiece, vol. i.; occasional pencil markings in the text or end papers. Bindings show very little wear; there is a small repair to the top of the spine of vol. i.; small chip top of backstrip to vol. III. Fourteen plates (some folding), collated and complete. Top page edges gilt. xxvii., [1], 522 pp.; [iv], 480; [iv], 464; [iv], 446; [vi], 460; [xx], 324 pp. Text generally clean, some occasional light foxing. US Media rate as quoted at checkout; Priority Mail or International orders will require extra postage. Boswell's Life of Johnson is considered by many to be the finest biography in the English language. Every bibliophile would enjoy having a set in their library.Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the eminent English author and philosopher, "English critic, biographer, essayist, poet, and lexicographer, regarded as one of the greatest figures of 18th-century life and letters.his career can be seen as a literary success story of the sickly boy from the Midlands who by talent, tenacity, and intelligence became the foremost literary figure and the most formidable conversationalist of his time. For future generations, Johnson was synonymous with the later 18th century in England. The disparity between his circumstances and achievement gives his life its especial interest.In 1763 Johnson met the 22-year-old James Boswell, who would go on to make him the subject of the best-known and most highly regarded biography in English. The first meeting with this libertine son of a Scottish laird and judge was not auspicious, but Johnson quickly came to appreciate the ingratiating and impulsive young man. Boswell kept detailed journals, published only in the 20th century, which provided the basis for his biography of Johnson and also form his own autobiography." - Britannica online.
Seller: Haaswurth Books, Binghamton, NY, U.S.A.
George Birkbeck Hill (ed). Boswell's Life of Johnson. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1887.
Price: US$207.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1887. (First, thus) A complete set, in six volumes, of James Boswell's biography of the illustrious man of letters, Dr Samuel Johnson. Edited by George Birkbeck Hill. Also containing Boswell's Journal of A Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey into North Wales. Hardcover green cloth over boards, gilt lettering and decoration on spine, chalkboard black endpapers. Books in very good condition overall. Bindings tight. Very occasional foxing, pages otherwise clean and unmarked save early owner name Henry Deering in neat ink script in each volume and stamp Library of the English Department, The Phillips Exeter Academy (New Hampshire, USA); both markings are usually on half title or other front matter. Library stamp also appears on last blank fl. Each Volume has the title page of the third edition dated 1799, and noted parenthetically, in addition to its own 1887 title page. Each also has unique frontispieces; throughout the six volumes are multiple tipped-in fold out charts, maps and facsimiles of Johnson s correspondence. Volume I, The Life (1709-1765): frontispiece is an engraving from a portrait of Johnson by Joshua Reynolds, there is a separate portrait by Reynolds and two fold out facsimiles of Johnson s writing, one concerning Rasselas; Volume II, The Life (1766-1776): a frontispiece from a bust by Nollekens and a fold-out facsimile of Johnsons writing from his 54th year; Volume III, The Life (1776-1780): another frontispiece by Reynolds, a facsimile of a round robin (petition) directed to Johnson, and a portrait of Johnson by Opie; Volume IV: The Life (1780-1784); Volume V,The Tour to the Hebrides and The Journey into North Wales: yet another Reynolds portrait, a facsimile of handwriting from 1792, a nice color map of Scotland; and, Volume VI, Addenda, Index, Dicta including an extensive chart of Johnson s contemporaries. Additional photos available on request. This is an oversized heavy set that requires additional postage for international delivery outside of the US.
Seller: Douglas Park Media, Brunswick, ME, U.S.A.
Price: US$219.78 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: A very good set in publishers binding, complete in 6 volumes. Light rubbing to the extremities, but overall a very good solid set. A few pieces of Johnson related ephemera from the late 19th early 20th century tipped into the prelims of vols 1 and 2. Previous owners blindstamps to front end papers of each volume.
Seller: Temple Bar Bookshop, Dublin, DUB, Ireland
Price: US$259.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Short ink gift inscription in #1. Henry Frowde. About 400pp each. Portraits. Facsimiles. Gilt tops. Green cloth. Very nice near fine. Size: 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" Tall
Seller: Artis Books & Antiques, Calumet, MI, U.S.A.
Price: US$324.18 + shipping
Description: Very good copies in the original gilt-blocked cloth. Spine bands and panel edges somewhat rubbed and dust-toned as with age. Remains quite well-preserved overall: tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description; 6 v. : facsims, map, port. ; 24 cm. Contents; v. 1-4. Life (v.l, 1709-1765; v. 2 1765-1776; v. 3, 1776-1780; v. 4, 1780-1784)--v. 5. Tour to the Hebrides (1773) and Journey into North Wales (1774)--v. 6 Addenda, index, dicta philosophi, &c. Subjects; Johnson, Samuel 1709-1784. Hebrides (Scotland) Description and travel. Scotland Description and travel Early works to 1800. Wales, North Description and travel. 8 Kg.
Seller: MW Books Ltd., Galway, Ireland
Price: US$364.00 + shipping
Description: Very good copies in the original gilt-blocked cloth. Spine bands and panel edges somewhat rubbed and dust-toned as with age. Remains quite well-preserved overall: tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description; 6 v. : facsims, map, port. ; 24 cm. Contents; v. 1-4. Life (v.l, 1709-1765; v. 2 1765-1776; v. 3, 1776-1780; v. 4, 1780-1784)--v. 5. Tour to the Hebrides (1773) and Journey into North Wales (1774)--v. 6 Addenda, index, dicta philosophi, &c. Subjects; Johnson, Samuel 1709-1784. Hebrides (Scotland) Description and travel. Scotland Description and travel Early works to 1800. Wales, North Description and travel. 8 Kg.
Seller: MW Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$587.61 + shipping
Description: Six Volues. 8vo Plates , folding facsimile letters etc. Original brown/red cloth. Very Good Set.
Seller: A&F.McIlreavy.Buderim Rare Books, Buderim, QLD, Australia
Price: US$833.74 + shipping
Description: First edition thus. Six volumes. Large 8vo. Vol I 522pp; Vol II 480pp; Vol III 464pp; Vol IV 446pp; Vol V 460pp ; Vol VI 324. Half titles to each volume. Contemporary speckled calf by Roger De Coverly. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Illustrated. A very handsome set with only light wear and a few small nicks to the binding extremities. The contents with minor spotting to the prelims otherwise clean and bright throughout. With the bookplate of Clive Behrens to the front pastedown of each volume. Provenance: Major Clive Behrens, husband of Charlotte Louisa Adela Evelina Rothschild. Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.
Seller: LUCIUS BOOKS (ABA, ILAB, PBFA), York, United Kingdom
Price: US$935.00 + shipping
Description: 6 volumes. First of the Edition. With fourteen engraved illustrations including, a number of portraits of Johnson from Sir Joshua Reynolds' paintings, from Opie's portrait, and many facsimiles of Johnson's handwriting, the Round Robin plate, a map of johnson and Boswell's tour through the Hebrides and a chart of Johnson's contemporaries. 8vo, handsomely bound in contemporary three-quarter forest-green morocco over marbled paper covered boards, the spines with raised bands, two compartments lettered in gilt, marbled endleaves to match, top edges gilt. xxvii, [1 errata], 522; 480; [vi], 464; [vi], 446; [viii], 460; lxxiv[ii], 324 pp. A very well preserved and handsome set, the bindings are tight and show only minor age or evidence of use with a little rubbing and evidence of shelving, Volume I has been rehinged, the text-blocks and plates are all in excellent condition, the spine panels, as usual with green morocco or calf bindings have mellowed a bit to a honey-green. FIRST EDITION OF THIS FINE CLARENDON PRESS EDITION OF BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON AND OTHER WORKS. Celebrated for its intimacy and vividness, Boswell's Life of Johnson "is one of the best books in the world. It is assuredly a great, very great work. Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic Poets,--Shakespeare is not more decidedly the first of Dramatists,--Demosthenes is not more decidedly the first of Orators, than Boswell is the first of Biographers." (Macauley, in the Edinburgh Review, 1831). Boswell learned a great deal about the art of biography from his subject, and brought to his task boundless curiosity, persistence, and zest. Boswell had been collecting material for this work since his first interview with Johnson in 1763, and was confident that his kind of biography, "which gives not only a History of Johnson's visible progress through the world, and of his publications, but a view of his mind in his letters and conversations, is the most perfect that can be conceived, and will be more of a Life than any work that has ever yet appeared." He said too that: "A sanction to my faculty of giving a just representation of Dr. Johnson I could not conceal. Nor will I suppress my satisfaction in the consciousness, that by recording so considerable a portion of the wit and wisdom of the brightest ornament of the eigteenth century, I have largely provided for the instruction and entertainment of mankind." If Boswell does indulge in a little harmless flattery to himself, the concluding words of his preface are literally true, for Boswells Johnson, as much as any other book, "has largely provided for the instruction and entertainment of mankind." The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides is the famous account of Boswell and Johnsons tour to the North in 1773, including some original poems by Johnson never before published and numerous "literary anecdotes and opinions of men and books." This tour proved to be inspirational for both men; Johnson published A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND in 1775 and Boswell, in addition to this work, used his notes from the tour extensively in his LIFE OF JOHNSON, published in 1791. Volume VI is a very extensive study of the works of Johnson including a diagram of his contemporaries, a significant section on the Titles of Works Quoted in the Notes, an Addenda of Autograph Letters, and etc., and a very extensive indes and Dicta Philosophi.
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1043.98 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: 3 volumes (of 6) only, octavo (228 x 145 mm). Finely bound by FAZAKERLEY (Liverpool) in red morocco, titles direct to spines in gilt, raised bands, ruled compartments, gilt ruling on boards and inner board margins, bindings with some wear at edges; recent bookplate and name of previous owner, who added his name on title page of vol. IV; top edges gilt, others untrimmed, armorial engraved bookplates by SHERBORN of WILLIAM ROBINSON ( Liverpool Johnson scholar and collector) extra bound in each volume; fine, unfaded set. Extra illustrated with numerous engraved and lithographic plates of views and facsimile, some folding; First Hill edition. Vol. III has 82 plates with a handwritten list at the beginning; vol. IV has 80 plates; vol VI: 6 portrait plates, 6 fac simile and an article pubished 1887 in the "Bookseller" at the publication of this edition; 464, 446, LXXIII, 336 pages; inside excellent, as new, all plates with protective tissues;
Seller: Magnus, Paris, France
Price: US$1388.00 + shipping
Description: 6 Volumes. 8vo. with half-titles. 6 portraits (incl. 4 frontis.), fold-out frontis. chart, 6 folding facsimile letters (some double-page), & folding coloured map. original quarter morocco, t.e.g. (spines sunned with some wear to extremities). First Edition Edited by George Birkbeck Hill of the most famous biography in the English language. "The definitive edition with copious annotations and a model index." (Encyc. Brit., 11th Edn.) "This has so long held the field as the one edition for scholarly use that it is most unlikely it will every be superseded Hills] purpose was to surround Boswells book with as rich a mass of illustrative comment concerning the literature and literary men in Great Britain during the latter half of the eighteenth century as he could find reasonable connexion for in the allusions of the text [His] references to parallel passages in Johnsons own works constitute one of the most valuable features of the edition, as the index to the Life serves in some measure as a concordance to the Works. The mass of pertinent illustrative material from other books shows Hill to have been easily the best-read of all the editors after Malone The great mass of pertinent matter from other books, the fullness and convenience of the index, and the uniform accuracy of the references, make the edition one of the few indispensable tools for all workers in the eighteenth century." (Pottle) NCBEL II 1214. Pottle 98. cfGrolier, One Hundred Books Famous In English Literature, 65.
Seller: D & E LAKE LTD. (ABAC/ILAB), Toronto, ON, Canada
James Boswell; George Birkbeck Hill [ed.]. Boswell's Life of Johnson. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1887.
Price: US$1667.48 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: James Boswell's complete six volume biography of Samuel Johnson, beautifully bound in half calf, and illustrated throughout. The first edition of this work to be edited by George Birkbeck Hill. In beautiful signed half calf bindings from Frost & Co. of Bath, this is an excellent and complete six volume set of James Boswell's biography of English writer Dr. Samuel Johnson. The first edition thus, being the first edition edited by George Birkbeck Hill, and including both Boswell's 'Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides', and Johnson's 'Diary of a Journey into North Wales'.Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait to four volumes, two further engraved plates, and six folding plates. Collated, complete.A landmark work in the development of the modern biography in English, many have claimed it as the greatest biography ever written. Nevertheless, this biography takes many critical liberties with Johnson's life, with Boswell making various changes to Johnson's quotations and even censoring his comments. In signed half calf bindings, with gilt detailing to back strips and cloth covered boards. Light fading to back strips, otherwise, externally lovely. Binder's stamps to verso of front free endpapers. Internally, firmly bound. Pages bright and clean. Near Fine
Seller: Rooke Books PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom
Price: US$8500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Edited by George Birbeck Hill. 11 volumes (including the index), extended from 6. Extra-illustrated edition with hundreds of portraits and views, including numerous scarce 18th-century copperplates, all inlaid to size. 8vo, beautifully bound in full brown crushed morocco; ornate gilt-tooled decorative floral devices on covers and spines; raised bands, thick gilt dentelles, marbled end papers, top edge gilt. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1887. Fine. A superb set and a magnificent example of the art of extra-illustrated books.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
BOSWELL James JOHNSON Samuel. Life of Johnson. , 1887.
Price: US$11000.00 + shipping
Description: "(JOHNSON, Samuel) BOSWELL, James. Boswell's Life of Johnson, including Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey into North Wales. Oxford: Clarendon, 1887. Six volumes bound in eleven. Octavo, contemporary full navy morocco gilt, raised bands, top edges gilt, uncut. $11,000.First George Birkbeck Hill edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson and Johnson's travels, extra-illustrated with 1153 finely engraved portraits, views, maps and facsimiles (including many proofs on India paper), and facsimile of handwritten note by Hill tipped in. Handsomely bound in full morocco by Riviere & Son.Hill was a renowned Johnsonian scholar; when the Clarendon Press brought out this six-volume set in 1887, "the edition was accepted as a masterpiece of spacious editing. The index, forming the sixth volume, is a monument of industry and completeness" (DNB). "The fascination of [Boswell and Johnson's] dialogue, that dialogue of mind, heart and voice round which Boswell organized his great Life, is that it is not merely between two very different men but between two epochs. In its pages, Romantic Europe speaks to Renaissance Europe, and is answered" (Wain, 229). Due to the profusion of added plates, portraits and facsimiles, each of the five text volumes were divided into two volumes, for a total of 11 volumes (the index volume is not extra-illustrated). Interiors and added plates clean and fine. Volume I, Part I and Volume III, Part I expertly rebacked with original spine neatly laid down, a few other joints slightly tender or with minor reinforcements, bindings sound. A very handsome and lavishly extra-illustrated set in excellent condition."
Seller: Bauman Rare Books, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.