Debates in Parliament By Samuel Johnson, LL.D. In two volumes. Vol. I

First of two volumes in 8vo. pp. [4] (blank), [3], vi-xv, [5], 394, ff. [2] (blank). Calf. Includes bookplates of the Revd John Sharpe.

Imaginary reports of “debates,” originally written by William Guthrie and edited by Johnson for the Gentleman's magazine in in the late 1730s and early 1740s. The debates were given fictitious names as "Debates in the Senate of Lilliputs." Johnson was never at the gallery himself, but had assistance from persons employed. Some debates were the mere coinage of his imagination. In 1787 they were collected and reprinted, and issued both separately (as here, with volume 1 dealing with November 19, 1740-April 16, 1741 and volume 2 with December 1,1741-February 23, 1743) and as part of an enlarged, thirteen-volume version of his collected ‘The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D’ (vol. 12 and 13), issued with cancel titlepages. See also J. D. Fleeman, A Bibliography of the Works of Samuel Johnson. Oxford, 2000, 87.3W/1.2/1a; ESTC, T83965; Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 10, p. 922.

Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.