First edition. Two volumes, folio. Near contemporary full brown calf with elaborate gilt decoration to spine and boards, lettered in gilt to green title labels and with volume numbers in gilt to red and black title labels. Signature 19D in Todd's first state which he states "occurs very infrequently". Title page printed in black and red. A fine, tall, unsophisticated copy, with a little superficial wear to the spine ends and joints. Internally, notably fresh with just the occasional marginal stain. An exceptional copy of this landmark of lexicography in a magnificent binding.

The magnificent Hersholt copy of the most influential dictionary in the English language.
Johnson's monumental literary achievement and "the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography" (PMM). Assisted by a succession of amanuenses, Johnson took just over eight years to list the 40,000 words found in the Dictionary. Born of a dissatisfaction with the variable standard of available dictionaries, the work was financed by a group of booksellers, whose names appear in the imprint, and were joint proprietors, having contracted the work from Johnson and paid him 1500 guineas in instalments for it. What distinguished his work from previous endeavours was the illustration of his definitions with over 114,000 citations drawn from English writing in every field of learning during the two centuries from the middle of the Elizabethan period down to his own time, even rewriting some to fit his purposes. He also introduced his own opinion into the definitions, often humorous or prejudiced.
It was published on 15 April 1755 in an edition of 2,000 copies and its reception was almost universally appreciative. As Boswell put it some 30 years later in his Life of Johnson, "the world contemplated with wonder so stupendous a work achieved by one man, while other countries had thought such undertakings fit only for whole academies". It remained the standard English dictionary for some two centuries until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary.
The national pride taken in the dictionary was expressed by the poet Christopher Smart when he wrote in the Universal Visitor: "I look upon [it] with equal amazement, as I do upon St. Paul's Cathedral; each the work of one man, each the work of an Englishman"
Due to its heft, copies of the first edition seldom survive in bindings of the time. Copies in early bindings without meaningful repair, particularly in such well preserved condition as this, are now very rare indeed.

PROVENANCE: Thomas Hutton, of Goldsborough in Yorkshire (1757-1845, book collector: armorial bookplate, and crest on spines); Jean Hersholt (bookplate; his sale Parke-Bernet, March 1954).

PMM 201; Rothschild 1237

Stock ID: 45449