Shaw, William:

AN ANALYSIS OF THE GAELIC LANGUAGE

      London: Printed for the Author, by W. and A. Strahan..., 1778.. xxiv,156pp. Quarto. Modern cloth and boards, gilt label, untrimmed, the Subscribers List unopened. Faint old stamps of a defunct mercantile library, title neatly remargined at gutter, some marginal discolorations to a few early leaves, else a very good copy. First edition of Shaw's first book-length publication. There are some corrections in a very early hand on two pages, likely made with authority. James Boswell is among the subscribers included in the four leaves of subscribers. Samuel Johnson contributed two paragraphs to the "Proposals" for printing of this work, and encouraged Shaw in his next undertaking, a Gaelic vocabulary: "Sir, if you give the world a vocabulary of that language, while the island of Great Britain stands in the Atlantic ocean your name will be mentioned." Unfortunately, the publication of that work was marred by controversy: due to the Scottish highlanders having refused cooperation unless paid for information, the work was more heavily weighted toward Irish words, and some of Shaw's subscribers therefore labeled it defective. In spite of the detractions noted, an agreeable copy of this book. COURTNEY & SMITH, p.129.