“BOSWELL’S INDISCRETIONS… AND THE EXTREMITY OF DRUNKENNESS… CREATED A LITERARY SENSATION”: BOSWELL’S 1785 JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES, IN ORIGINAL BOARDS

BOSWELL, James. The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. London: Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, 1785. Octavo, original blue boards respined in paper, uncut; pp. (xx), (i), (534), (i). Housed in a custom full morocco pull-off case. $1150.

Second edition, revised and corrected, published the same year as the first, of “perhaps the sprightliest book of travels in the language,” with “poetical pieces by Johnson relative to the tour and never before published” (Tinker, 212). A scarce uncut copy in original boards.

Boswell toured through Scotland with Dr. Johnson in 1773; his account of the trip, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D., was published in 1785. At the time, he had already begun to write his renowned biography of Johnson (an advertisement for which appears at the rear of this volume). "Boswell's indiscretions as to the emotions aroused in him by the ladies' maids at Inveraray, and the extremity of drunkenness which he exhibited at Corrichatachin, created a literary sensation and sent the Tour through three editions in one year" (Britannica).

Original boards showing some wear, text exceptionally clean and bright, rear blank with corner missing. Very desirable uncut and in original boards.