Sylvanus Urban Samuel Johnson Tobias (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very good plus. 1st Edition. [688pp, foldout map]: foliated [ii], viii, [1]-660, [16pp Indexes], [ii]; 12 monthly numbers plus the Supplement for 1740, stab-sewn & bound in handsomely rebacked contemporary sprinkled panel-calf, with five raised bands & gilt title on spine; 208 x 133 x 40 mm. The bound tenth annual volume of the first "magazine" (established January 1731); fourth volume of the retitled second series (1736-1833). With unsigned Preface written by Samuel Johnson (according to James Boswell) & as many as ten of the twelve installments of the contentious 'Debates in the Senate of Lilliput', possibly also by him (with the earlier two arguably by Tobias Smollett). The monthly parliamentary parody arose following the prohibition on reporting the daily debates in the House of Commons (April 1738), with "Lilliput" substituted for "Parliament", & members' names scrambled, to sidestep the injunction, beginning with the June 1738 number (Vol VIII: 283). While he is conventionally held to have written the column from 1741-3, a study of early references to Johnson (by Brack) reveals that he may have begun as early as March 1740 (following his return to London after eight months in the Midlands). The pretense however appears, based on research by Dr Don C. Shelton of Auckland (cf, his Tobias Smollet blog), to have originated with Smollett (while the usual candidate, William Guthrie, may only have recorded the proceedings covertly from the gallery). Boswell, likewise, departs both from the consensus view & Johnson's own "hasty recollection", in asserting "that his composition of them began November 19, 1740, and ended February 23, 1742-3 [Life (1893), p47]". He also identifies at least five further contributions by Johnson to the 1740 volume: 'The Life of Admiral Blake' (pp301-7); 'The Life of Sir Francis Drake' (pp389-96; 443-7; 509-15; 600-3); 'Some Account of the Life of Philip Barretier' (p612); 'An Essay on Epitaphs' (p593-6) with note in the Index identifying a section from it as "Newton, Sir Isaac, his Epitaph censured, 594" [p666]; & the verse much admired by Garrick, 'An Epitaph upon the celebrated Claudy Philips, Musician, who died very poor' (p464). As noted in the 'Table of Maps and Plans in This Volume' [p686] the five foldout plates intended for the volume were individually delivered to subscribers throughout the year, to be bound into their annual volume. The present copy shows no sign of plates removed from their appointed places (where they appear never to have been bound in). The sole inclusion, a three-panel "Map or Chart of the Western Atlantic Ocean" has unfortunately had its lower third torn away. Otherwise a tight clean copy of this significant (if controversial) volume, with portions of the acidified sections of the calf panelling lightly crazed; among the more elusive early volumes.