A Dictionary of the English Language: in which the words are deduced from their originals and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language and an English grammar

Samuel JOHNSON

Edité par London: printed for J.F. and C. Rivington [and others], 1785

A propos de cet article

2 vols. 4to. 19th-century calf, gilt, maroon and black morocco lettering-labels, marbled edges and endpapers. Spines quite rubbed, covers a little scuffed, some foxing of portrait frontispiece and prelims, but a robust set, internally clean and tidy; lacking half-title in vol. i. Sixth edition (first edition 1755), the first London quarto edition and the first to be printed after Johnson's death - the first with his portrait (after Reynolds); with the armorial bookplate of George Burns ("EVER READY"). "It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employment of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward. Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries, whom mankind have considered, not as the pupil, but the slave of science, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstructions from the paths through which Learning and Genius press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progress. Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach" (preface). The grandson of a lexicographer, John Burns (né John Burn, c1709-1793), author of A Practical Grammar of the English Language (1766) and A Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language (1777), George Burns (1795-1890, created 1889 first Bt), Glasgow shipowner, was a partner in G. & J. Burns and, with Samuel Cunard, a founding partner in what became the Cunard Line (he was uncle, too, of David MacBrayne, founder of the company, nationalised in 1948, that became Caledonian MacBrayne). On his retirement in 1860 he bought the estate of Wemyss Bay and commissioned Wemyss House from the Glasgow architect James Salmon. "Up to the last," recorded his Times obituary, "he could read and write without the aid of spectacles. He was accustomed until lately to employ many hours of each day in the study of scientific and religious works, and he took a lively interest in the doings of the world around him, retaining in his own hands the management of his financial arrangements, and frequently astonishing those immediately connected with him by his unfailing memory and the unerring accuracy of his judgment." The dictionary passed in the 20th century to the family of another Glasgow architect, John Watson Junior; Watson's son-in-law Andrew Hewson, the London literary agent, lent it to Dame Beryl Bainbridge, his author since 1983, when she was working on her 2001 novel According to Queeney, about Johnson and the Thrales. She was not, perhaps, as gentle with the binding as she might have been, but in gratitude dedicated the novel to Hewson and his wife and co-agent, Watson's daughter Margaret.

N° de réf. du vendeur 34M100208

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: A Dictionary of the English Language: in which the words are deduced from their originals and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language and an English grammar
• Éditeur: London: printed for J.F. and C. Rivington [and others]
• Date de parution: 1785
• Reliure: Hardcover
• État de l'article: Very Good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Scottish