BOSWELL, James.. LETTERS BETWEEN THE HONOURABLE ANDREW ERSKINE, and James Boswell, Esq;. London: printed by Samuel Chandler; for W. Flexney near Gray's-Inn-Gate Holborn, 1763.

Price: US$641.34 + shipping

Description: Small 8vo, pp. iv, 156; leaf E6 (pp. 59-60) torn at inner margin, into the text but without loss; title page with about 1cm sliced away at head (presumably to remove an earlier inscription); leaf E6 (pp. 59-60) with long tear or cut in inner margin, without loss; title also quite heavily stained at foredge, from the leather turn-in (an effect also visible, but less so, on the last page of text); contemporary sheep, rebacked and with endpapers replaced; contemporary sheep, rebacked. First and only edition. This was the first publication to which Boswell put his name, and as Gordon Turnbull says, was 'an important early anticipation of Boswell's innovative approach to biography in his later Johnsonian works' – that is, in its liveliness and indiscretion, and in its willingness to put the writer (complete with all his faults) in front of the reader. Pottle 8. Provenance. With an early inscription on title page 'John Ramsay Esqr Dfs' and on the lower endpaper (in a different hand) 'John Ramsay's Esqr Writer Dumfries'. This is very unlikely to be Boswell's contemporary, the writer and antiquarian John Ramsay of Ochtertyre (1736-1814): he was indeed a Writer to the Signet, but he lived in Stirlingshire, which is nowhere near Dumfries. It seems probable that some other inscription was at the head of the title page, as this has been cut away, and 'Dumfries Library' has been written at the head of the succeeding leaf, leaving the immediate impression of its having been written on the title. Inscriptions on the upper pastedown 'No. 172' and '10 days' presumably date from its time as part of a contemporary lending library at Dumfries, which is about 50 miles south-east of Auchinleck.

Seller: Christopher Edwards ABA ILAB, Henley-on-Thames, OXON, United Kingdom