A Dictionary of the English Language:

£12,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

first edition in the original calf boards The first edition of Samuel Johnson's important contribution to the standardisation of the English language, in the original calf boards 'He codified the spelling of English words; he gave full and lucid definitions of their meanings... and he adduced extensive and apt illustrations from a wide range of authoritative writers' (PMM). An excellent example in contemporary mottled calf of this enduring classic, a mainstay of any serious collection. With over 40,000 definitions and more than 100,000 quotations compiled by the most prolific writer of the eighteenth century, and arguably one of the most distinguished men of letters in English history. A 'Dictionary', Johnson informs us, is a 'book containing the words of any language in alphabetical order, with explanations of their meaning; a lexicon a vocabulary; a word-book'. First published in 1755, the project to find a replacement to the generally deficient Dictionarium Britannicum of Nathan Bailey had been proposed to Johnson ten years earlier by a group of booksellers headed by Robert Dodsley. Whereas the best international dictionaries then available had been sponsored and composed by public bodies of learned men, the Dictionary of the English Language was from the beginning a commercial enterprise, and the work of a single person. Johnson, operating out of his house in Gough Street, was able to complete the venture in just 9 years. 'The Dictionary left an immense mark on its age. I

• Binding: Hardcover

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