Item #021157 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.

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

London: J. F. and C. Rivington, et al. 1785. Seventh Edition. Hardcover. The First Unabridged Single Folio Volume edition, here bound in two tall folio (11-1/4" x 17-3/4") volumes, each with a title page, in contemporary tree calf leather neatly rebacked with the original gilt-decorated spines with matching red morocco spine labels; with engraved portrait frontispiece of Johnson dated 1787. Printed immediately following Johnson's death in 1784. SLATE contributor Adam Kirsch in a 2003 NPR broadcast said this about Johnson's DICTIONARY: "The modern dictionary's ideal reader is a Martian scientist: someone with no background knowledge who wants a unique definition for every word. Johnson's dictionary, on the other hand, implies a reader much like Johnson himself: a curious and intelligent English speaker who wants to gain a fuller sense of words he already knows. Johnson clearly recognizes the paradox of the dictionary-- you have to know most of what's in it in order to use it" ("Slate's Culturebox: Johnson's 18th-Century English," DAY TO DAY, 24 September 2003). Armorial bookplate and stamped family coat of arms of Alexander Peckover Doyle Penrose on the front pastedown of each volume along with the bookplate of defunct Upsala College which closed in 1995. The only other library marking is a small, unobtrusive ink stamp on the verso of the title page of the first volume. Attractive, clean, Near Fine. Item #021157

Price: $2,500.00

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