Item #28990 Prayers and meditations, composed by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. and published from his manuscripts, by George Strahan, A.M. The second edition. Samuel Johnson.
Prayers and meditations, composed by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. and published from his manuscripts, by George Strahan, A.M. The second edition.

Prayers and meditations, composed by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. and published from his manuscripts, by George Strahan, A.M. The second edition.

London: for T. Cadell, 1785. 8vo, pp. xv, [1], 233, [1] ads; contemporary full red straight-grain morocco, ornate gilt border on covers incorporating flowers and berries, gilt-lettered direct on gilt-decorated spine; very good. Fleeman notes that 1,000 copies were printed. Includes a Preface to the first edition of 1785, and adds three additional Prayers printed here for the first time, those of April 24, 25, and May 6, "composed by me on the death of my Wife, and reposited among her Memorials, May 8, 1752" (pp. 10-15). At the end of his life, in 1784, Johnson had given the manuscripts to Strahan to publish, but Strahan censored passages where Johnson had expressed anxiety and uncertainty over his Christian belief. Strahan published what amounted to an expurgated edition in 1785. Chapman & Hazen, p. 163; Courtney & Smith, p. 159; Fleeman 85.8PM/3. Item #28990

Price: $1,250.00

See all items by