Beschreibung:

JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784). The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language; addressed to ... Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield . London: [William Strahan] for J. and P. Knapton, T. Longman and T. Shewell, C. Hitch, A. Millar, and R. Dodsley, 1747 [but 1755].
JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784). The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language; addressed to ... Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield . London: [William Strahan] for J. and P. Knapton, T. Longman and T. Shewell, C. Hitch, A. Millar, and R. Dodsley, 1747 [but 1755]. 8° (206 x 119mm). (Small stain at foot of title, some light marginal browning and spotting, blank verso of final leaf soiled.) Near-contemporary speckled calf, gilt roll-tool border (rebacked, preserving longitudinal black morocco lettering-piece, new endpapers, extremities a little rubbed). Provenance : Haven O' More (morocco label; sold Sotheby's New York, Garden Collection, 9-10 November 1989, lot 147). Second edition, following the appearnce of the quarto edition in two states in 1747. It was on the recommendation of Robert Dodsley, the bookseller who had first suggested the scheme of the Dictionary to Johnson, that the Plan had been addressed to Lord Chesterfield. William Strahan's printing ledger reported the 'reprinting' of 1500 copies in April 1755 coinciding with the first publication of the Dictionary itself that month. Alston V, 362; Courtney & Smith 20 (misdated); Fleeman I, p. 144; Sledd & Kolb pp. 82-84.