BEATTIE, James - FORBES, Sir William.

£2,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington

An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D. First edition of Forbes's principal work, an excellent association copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper to the author's son, "William Forbes Esqr. from the author"; together with a small group of related contemporary autograph material laid in which reflects the strong ties between the Forbes and Beattie families.Sir William Forbes, 6th Baronet of Pitsligo (1739-1806) was a prominent Scottish banker, philanthropist, and writer, and long-time friend of James Beattie. Forbes was the dedicatee of a number of Beattie's works and became the executor of his will upon Beattie's death in 1803, in which Beattie bequeathed "to my excellent friend, Sir William Forbes... as a small memorial of our friendship, my silver watch, with a stop and second hand, made with particular care by Gartly, and also the two splendid volumes in quarto of Lavater's 'Physiognomy', which will be found among my other books" (II, p. 349). Forbes was also a friend of James Boswell (described in the Tour of the Hebrides as "a man of whom too much good cannot be said") and through him became a member of Samuel Johnson's literary dining club. The present biography of Beattie was republished in three octavo volumes the following year. At the time of publication the author's eldest son, William Forbes (1773-1828), was 33 years old. He was a lifelong friend of Sir Walter Scott, whom he famously usurped by marrying Willihemina Belsches, and he succeeded

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