THE LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT ENGLISH POETS. With Critical Observations on Their Works.

London: for J. Rivington & Sons, et al., 1790. 4 volumes. “A New Edition, Corrected”, and a very early edition. Portrait of Johnson printed by T. Cadell Strand as frontispiece in the first volume. 8vo, very handsomely bound in contemporary full polished calf, with a decorative gilt rolled border on all covers, the spines tastefully gilt-tooled with gilt florets in compartments separated by gilt tooled flat bands, one compartment with a red morocco label gilt lettered and with further gilt flourishes and a second compartment with a green morocco label with the volume number tooled in gilt and surrounded by further gilt work, board edges gilt stippled, endpapers marbled, silk page markers bound into each volume. [vii], 436; v, 431; [iii], 409, ad; [iii], 552. An especially handsome set in full contemporary bindings gilt extra, with no evidence of any sophistication or restoration, the bindings sturdy, attractive and with very little of the evidence of age then one would expect to see. Internally fresh and clean and tight, unpressed and with a nice dark legible impressions and just very minor evidence of use or age. AN ESPECIALLY HANDSOME SET OF THIS MASTERWORK OF LITERATURE. It took Johnson four years to write these “Lives”, and much of their charm lies in the anecdotes and reminiscences which the author was able to provide. He spent much time in the company of men of letters and his retentive memory preserved many of the facts and criticisms which fell from their lips. The work, Johnson's last great labor, was suggested by the Martins at Edinburgh. "The first conception of the booksellers was to begin with the works of Chaucer, but that project was too vast for them, and the first author in their edition was Cowley. The diminution of the scheme is not greatly to be regretted. The poets before Cowley were not so well know to Johnson, and he had no special information on their lives" (Courtney and Smith, p. 130).