JOHNSON ( Samuel ) - [ Cook ( Wm. ) ]

The Beauties of Johnson : consisting of maxims and observations, moral, critical, and miscellaneous

      Dublin: Printed for Messrs. Price, Whitestone, Walker (and eight others), 1782 - FIRST IRISH EDITION, pp xv, (1, blank), (7), (1, blank), 262, (2, blank), with the pre-liminary leaf blank but for "A1", the half-title signed A2 and the blank leaf M12 at end but without the portrait Fleeman mentions but ESTC does not, 12mo, contemporary calf, gilt ruled spine, with label, gilt : some very light browning of text, otherwise a very good copy. First Dublin edition, with the preface dated "Nov. 1781", in which Cook discusses his arrangement of these maxims after the manner of La Rochefoucault. All early editions are uncommon; it was popular and read to pieces. The Dublin printing is very uncommon, represented in ESTC by six copies in Ireland and UK and only three (McMaster, North Carolina and Yale) in the US. Fleeman 81.11B(Part I)/3. [Attributes: First Edition; Signed Copy; Hard Cover]