The Journal of a tour to the Hebrides, With Samuel Johnson, LL.D. …

First Edition of Boswell’s version of their three-month trek through the highlands and islands of Scotland in late 1773. Boswell’s account “has the chatty informality of a ‘rough’ guide: its focus is on Johnson, as it describes his charged encounters with the native population, whether humble cottagers or important personages like Lord Monboddo and Boswell's formidable father Lord Auchinleck” (Pat Rogers in ODNB). Johnson published his own account, very different in tone, in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775. The final leaf advertises Boswell’s Life of Johnson as “Preparing for the Press, in one Volume Quarto”.

8vo. Contemporary tree calf, smooth spine gilt in compartments, red morocco label, sides with single gilt fillets. With the half-title and terminal errata leaf. This copy as Rothschild 456, with I5r in the first state, Q7r and U6r in the second. Spine a little dried and worn at ends, band visible at foot, still a handsome copy.