1811 The Life of Samuel Johnson

Description

Early Edition, Leather Binding

Complete in four volumes.

The sixth edition of this work.

The influential biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson. This biography has been noted as being the best biography written in the English language, being an important work of literature.

James Boswell, the author, met Johnson in 1763, when Johnson was fifty-four years old, when they quickly became friends, a friendship that lasted until Johnson's death in 1784.

Johnson has been revered by some as being the only true great critic of English literature of his time. Possibly his best known work was his influential 'A Dictionary of the English Language', which had a far-reaching effect on the Modern English language. That dictionary remained the standard for one-hundred and fifty years, when the 'Oxford English Dictionary' was published.

Boswell is best known for this work, and for his mass of diaries and letters. However it was this work that brought his fame. He was admired for bringing more personal and human details into the biography than was usual in biographies of the time.

Collated, bound without all plates.