[Rarebooks] fa: [SAMUEL JOHNSON] - AN ESSAY ON MILTON'S USE AND IMITATION OF THE MODERNS - 1750

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 29. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/hoflz22

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI


[William Lauder; Samuel Johnson:] An Essay on Milton’s Use and Imitation of the Moderns, in his Paradise Lost. London: Printed for J. Payne and J. Bouquet, in Pater-Noster-Row, MDCCL [1750]. FIRST EDITION, first issue; 8vo (21 cm), bound in full polished calf with gilt-tooled borders and spine decorations; [24], 164, [4] pp. ESTC T222357.

In one of the great literary faux-pas of the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson contributed the preface and postscript to this notorious essay in which William Lauder accused Milton of plagiarism. Soon after its publication, Lauder was exposed as a charlatan and a forger who had based his claim on fraudulent sources. Mortified, Johnson forced Lauder to publish a confession and apology which Johnson himself dictated to him. Dr. Johnson quickly regained his reputation, but the the hapless Lauder never did, eventually skulking off to Barbados where he became a hotelier.

Modest wear to the binding, some cracking to the joints but both boards are secure; one leaf with an ink annotation in an early hand, a few occasional small spots, but generally very clean and crisp, firmly bound. From the library of noted book collector Hugh Selbourne, with his discreet ownership stamp on the verso of the title-page and the bottom margin of one text leaf; front paste-down with an engraved armorial monogram bookplate.